THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

__\W/__ 

HERBERT MORTIMER GESNER. 







LIBRARY OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT 



THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 



The Life Worth Living 

OR THE RELIGION OF CHRIST 



A Systematic and Popular Exposition of the Greatest 
Religious Document the World has ever 
seen, Commonly Known as the Ser- 
mon on the Mount 



By 

HERBERT MORTIMER GESNER 

Formerly Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church 
of Atlantic City, N.J. 




BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER 

TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED 



Copyright, 191 5, by Herbert M. Gesner 



All Rights Reserved 

BTzn 

Crf3 



The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. 



■ 

MAR 26 1915 

©CLA397293 
JtQ, 



PREFACE 

This book, born in fear and trembling and 
brought forth with much travail of spirit, is now 
sent out into the world. My one aim and one de- 
sire has been to know the " Mind of the Master " 
and to exhibit the Religion of Jesus as he taught 
it. 

" As much as in me lieth " I have sought to free 
myself from all theological bias and all trend of 
training, that I might see " Jesus only " and that 
I might hear the teachings which he taught. 

While in this book it is " I who speak and not 
the Lord," yet I say humbly, though confidently, 
that " I think also that I have the Spirit of God." 

My chief hope is, that those into whose hands 
this book may come, and those who may peruse 
its pages, seeking for an answer to that question 
which confronts every thoughtful, serious man, 
" What is the life worth living? " and desiring to 
know what was the " Religion that Jesus Taught " 
may find in this exposition of his own words some- 
thing that shall help them in their quest. 

May he who reads experience the joy and com- 
fort of spirit, which he who wrote received, at 
3 



4 PREFACE 

every moment, from the first contemplation of the 
plan to its present imperfect completion. 

While I, like every man, am greatly indebted 
to helps many and to teachers many, whose names 
cannot be here expressly acknowledged, I wish to 
recognize my particular indebtedness to the Rev. 
Henry W. Maier of New Britain, Conn., who has 
colabored with me, in forming the general out- 
line of most of the chapters of this book, and to 
whom I am largely obligated for many valuable 
suggestions. 



FOREWORD 

How well the artist understands the value of 
the view-point! None better than he knows its 
importance in the painting and interpreting of 
pictures. If he can lead the observer to that 
place, point or motive, from which he looks out 
upon that subject he seeks to portray, he has done 
much to quicken the sympathy, assist the under- 
standing, and aid the mind to the right use of the 
picture. 

This value of the view-point has suggested to 
me, that a brief word, explanatory of how I was 
led to the study of the subject myself, and intro- 
ductory to the chapters which follow, may be of 
practical use to the reader. 

If I can get you clearly to understand the mo- 
tive, the purpose, the quest, which spurred and 
inspired me in my study of this subject, I shall, 
in thought, have brought you to my view-point, 
and thus will you be enabled better to sympathize 
with, appreciate, and understand what I have at- 
tempted to accomplish in these pages. 

While it is often difficult to state the origin of 
an idea, I believe I can safely say that two in- 
fluences cooperated to give birth to this book. 
5 



6 FOREWORD 

The first was those passages in the Gospel biog- 
raphies of our Lord, which speak of his preach- 
ing, and of his teaching the disciples and the peo- 
ple, where no mention whatever is made of what 
he said. These passages are not a few. 

Among the many recorded, we read such as the 
following: " And he was preaching in the syna- 
gogues of Galilee," " And he sat down and taught 
the multitudes out of a boat," " And he spake to 
them of the kingdom of God," " And he was 
teaching daily in the temple " ; and concerning his 
disciples, it is recorded: " And he sent them to 
preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick." 
The question arose in my mind, What did he 
preach? What did he teach? What was his sys- 
tem, if he had any? 

For a long time these queries had lain latent in 
my mind, until, in my course of reading, this 
quotation from Lessing, " The Christian Religion 
has been tried for eighteen centuries and the Re- 
ligion of Christ remains to be tried," again 
brought the question squarely before my view, 
and again I asked, Where is the Religion of 
Christ found? Where any clear setting forth of 
what he was wont to preach, of what he taught 
his disciples to teach? Where in best and brief- 
est form is his exhibition of those principles of 
the Kingdom of God and of heaven, which he 



FOREWORD 7 

would have promulgated and prevail upon the 
earth? and that question I sought to answer. 

It was plain to me that the religious system of 
Christ was not given in the miracles, nor in the 
parables, nor in the incidents of his interesting 
life; these are merely illustrations and expres- 
sions of principles and beliefs already established 
and are themselves without coordination or sys- 
tematic relation. Then the thought came to me 
that there was one place and only one in the Gos- 
pel record, where a complete sermon, an entire 
discourse, a systematic and related body of teach- 
ing was given; to wit, in the Sermon on the Mount. 

The more I studied the matter the more I be- 
came convinced that this was the truth, that the 
Sermon on the Mount is the heart and soul of 
the Gospel, is the Gospel, and that miracle, par- 
able and occasional saying, in short, the life, are 
but expressive and illustrative of what is taught 
in that greatest, briefest system of religion the 
world has ever known. 

I dare not be so bold as to say that all that 
Jesus taught concerning the Kingdom of God is 
contained in this great sermon, but all that he 
taught is hinted at, suggested in principle, fore- 
shadowed in these marvelous words, even as every 
commandment and every law of God is contained 
in the great law of Love. With little doubt this 



8 FOREWORD 

Mountain Sermon is the fruit of those long years 
of patient waiting, keen observation, divine medi- 
tation, and heavenly communion, before our Lord 
entered upon his public ministry. 

This, we believe, will be the final conclusion of 
the deep and thoughtful student of this remark- 
able discourse. 

It is characterized by those elements of excel- 
lence which a sensitive and appreciative student 
will recognize and must admire in written or 
spoken discourse, and which come only as the re- 
sult of years of painstaking labor. 

There is in this sermon that sweet simplicity, 
that lucidity, plainness, and beauty of utterance 
which bespeak care. 

The one who will follow this discourse faith- 
fully will discover that Christ here gives an ar- 
ticulated body of principles and not merely dis- 
jecta membra of precept and saying. This is a 
body of truth, a system of thought, a coordinated 
setting forth of the true religion; part is related 
to part, teaching to teaching, with logical coher- 
ence and rational sequence; and the whole bears 
to the one end — the Kingdom of God. 

But, above all, the reader is impressed with its 
practical character. It deals with life — every 
theme is a theme of life; and every principle is 
applicable to man as long as man is man. 



FOREWORD 9 

In short, I believe in this marvelous teaching 
he who seeks will find the desideratum of the 
heart, mind and spirit of every man — a sound 
Philosophy for life, a spiritual Ethic and a prac- 
tical Religion. 



CONTENTS 



I The Character Worth Having . . 15 

II Live a Useful Life 33 

III Live a Progressive Life . ... 48 

IV Live a Peaceable Life 67 

V Live a Pure Life 82 

VI Live a Truthful Life 97 

VII Live a Large Life 113 

VIII Live the Perfect Life 129 

IX Live the Charitable Life .... 145 

X Live the Prayerful Life . . . .161 

XI LrvE the Self-Denying Life . . .178 

XII Live Free from the Bondage of Gold . 196 

XIII Live Free from the Bondage of Dou- 

BLE-MlNDEDNESS 213 

XIV Live Free from the Bondage of 

Worldly Care 227 

XV Live Free from the Bondage of Cen- 

SORIOUSNESS 245 

XVI Live for the Best Within You . . 262 



CHAPTER 

XVII 



XVIII 

XIX 

XX 



XXI 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Live Through the Power that is 
Without You 279 

Live for the Best Within Others . 293 

Life's Golden Invitation .... 308 

Life's Needed Word of Warning and 
Wisdom 325 

Life's Relation to the Christ and His 
Religion 344 



THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 



The Life Worth Living 

CHAPTER I 

THE CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 
Matt, v, 1-12 

THAT part of the Gospel, containing the 
address which Jesus delivered in the Mount, 
before the multitudes and his disciples, and re- 
corded in the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of 
Matthew, has commonly been called the " Ser- 
mon on the Mount." While this title has the ad- 
vantage of being convenient, attractive and fa- 
miliar, it is by no means adequate, as a definition 
or classification of that remarkable discourse. 
Says Austin Phelps, 1 " The generic idea of a ser- 
mon is that of an oral address to the popular mind 
on religious truth contained in the Scriptures, and 
elaborately treated with a view to persuasion." 
Now while this discourse of Christ may be made 
to tally with this definition almost in detail, and 
we have our suspicion that the definition was made 
from a study of this very passage, yet this is the 

1 " The Theory of Preaching." A Phelps, p. 28. 
15 



1 6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

definition of a scholar, the product of an analytic 
mind, and by no means tallies with the popular 
idea of a sermon. 

The popular conception of a sermon, we appre- 
hend, is more nearly contained in the definition 
which the Standard Dictionary gives. " A dis- 
course by a clergyman upon some religious topic 
based on a passage or text of the Bible, and de- 
livered as part of a church service." We believe 
that this expresses the average idea of a sermon, 
and it is a term far too small to comprehend the 
bounds of this exhaustive discourse. I know, for 
myself, that the conception of this product of the 
Divine Teacher, as a sermon, has limited its idea 
in my mind, and has lessened its place and pur- 
pose, in the Gospel record. And this is the very 
result we would seek to avoid. Viewed from the 
standpoint of God's government of a world of 
moral and spiritual beings, it should more prop- 
erly be denominated the setting forth of the Con- 
stitution and Statutes of that moral and spiritual 
system which Jesus so often referred to as " The 
Kingdom of God " or " the Kingdom of Heaven." 
Viewed from the standpoint of man as a religious 
being, dependent upon and guided by a revelation 
of the Divine, it is an analytic and systematic set- 
ting forth of the Gospel which Jesus preached, a 
related exhibition of the Religion of Christ. It 



CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 17 

contains the foundation stones upon which the 
life shall be built, the mountain principles to which 
the spirit of man shall aspire! It is the center 
and soul of the Mind of the Master — it is the 
creed of the Christ; to it all preaching of prophets 
of the earlier time, all the laws of the Jewish na- 
tion, all the experiences of Israel's history, con- 
verge ; and from it radiate all incidents and events 
written in the Gospel story, all epistles, preaching 
and Acts of the apostles. Therefore it seems to 
me that we must have an absolutely larger con- 
ception, of this " Great Discourse " of the Christ 
in our minds, that it may assume its proper place 
in our system of thinking, and have its proper in- 
fluence in our way of life. And we believe that 
a proper study of its content and meaning must 
result in a larger conception of the discourse it- 
self. 

When Jesus declared himself as a prophet and 
teacher sent from God, when he came upon the 
heels of John's proclamation, " behold the king- 
dom of heaven is at hand," and declared himself 
to be the exponent and head of this kingdom, men 
asked questions as they are asking them to-day. 

He came as a Teacher of religious truth, and 
men asked, Wherein does the authority of this 
teacher differ from others, and wherein is his 
teaching parallel to or diverse from theirs? 



1 8 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

The answers to these questions are given to 
those who will diligently study even as much of 
his teaching as is contained in this discourse. 

He came as a Leader of the lives of men, and 
asked that those who heard him, follow in his 
way of life, and men naturally ask, What does he 
require of those who follow him, and what does 
he promise and offer in return for such follow- 
ing? The answers to these questions are found 
in that Way of Life, with its obligations and re- 
wards, as set forth in this discourse. 

He came as the Lawgiver, the Enunciator of 
new spiritual principles of living, the Founder of 
a new kingdom, and men asked, What are the 
laws and principles of this new kingdom, and how 
is one to become a citizen of this new realm? 
These questions likewise receive their answers in 
his present discourse, and answering the last ques- 
tion first he at once turns the thoughts of his hear- 
ers to the subject of the Citizens of the kingdom 
of Heaven, and sets before them the Character 
Worth Having. 

It strikes the student of this Constitution of the 
Kingdom of God, the learner of what the Reli- 
gion of Christ is, as strange, that the Master 
should have sounded so high a note at the very be- 
ginning of his discourse. It seems as though he 
had begun at the very climax of his teaching — 



CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 19 

and that the very perfection of attainment re- 
quired of the disciples of this Teacher is such as, 
at the outset, would discourage all following. 
But Jesus puts character, such a character as he 
here outlines, first in his system of teaching, be- 
cause it is to be first in the lives of his followers, 
and it is concerning life — real life — true life, 
abundant life, lasting life, satisfying life — that 
he is speaking throughout. Here is one point 
wherein his teaching differs from all those who 
have gone before and all those who shall come 
after. 

The Teacher puts character first, in this dis- 
course, that he may make it prominent by contrast. 
It is not knowledge, nor attainment, nor utterance, 
nor action that must have the prominent place in 
the Religion of Christ, but character. He puts 
character first because of its indispensableness to 
the system which he taught. Given the character, 
the elements of which are enumerated in these 
opening words, and the man is a citizen of the 
kingdom ; but those who have all else — all out- 
ward semblance and conformity to the ideal law, 
yet lack the inner character — cannot be counted 
as citizens of the kingdom. He puts this ideal 
character first because the inner man and the 
spiritual life is of the very essence of the Religion 
of Christ, all else is subservient to this, and de- 



20 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

signed for the production of such a manhood. 
He puts it first because upon this is built the Gov- 
ernment of God, and the religion of the spiritual 
life. 

Now if one should run over the opening words 
of Christ's discourse, and inquire what is the 
prominent feature, what is that mark which ap- 
pears in every verse of the twelve and character- 
izes and distinguishes the whole, surely the least 
observant cannot remain long in doubt. As when 
some skilled player takes a simple theme, some 
sweet melody, and with the technique and touch 
of the artist weaves it into the warp and woof 
of his beautiful harmony, so that the theme now 
appears clear and true and again is lost in the 
very richness of its setting, yet under all and 
through all it is present, giving character and 
meaning to the entire composition, so does the 
Divine musician in this instance. His opening 
words sound that theme of " Blessed," which 
threads its golden way to the very end of the 
passage — concluding with that burst of music, 
" Rejoice and be exceeding glad." 

The motif of this part of the discourse is 
plainly " blessedness," joy and gladness. This 
note of joy, this song of heavenly happiness, re- 
minds us of the guiding song of the woodland 
bird in Wagner's Siegfried, leading the brave soul, 



CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 21 

on and up, " o'er moor and fen, o'er crag and tor- 
rent until the night is gone " — and his quest is 
attained. 

How helpful and how appropriate that our Di- 
vine Leader should have begun his Gospel with 
this note of encouragement, this song of blessed 
attainment for his timid human followers ! How 
the giving of this second law, the law of love, con- 
trasts with the giving of the first law, " the fiery 
law," when the mountain smoked and men dared 
not draw nigh! How beautiful in its simplicity 
was the giving of this new law of life, " And when 
he had sat down, his disciples came unto him! " 

Yea truly, " the Blessed Life " is the theme of 
these verses, and that those who have the qualities 
of character here enumerated shall be blessed, is 
the opening thought. Lyman Abbott in an ar- 
ticle in The Outlook, has given such a true defi- 
nition and such an apposite illustration of bles- 
sedness, that we cannot refrain from here quoting 
his words. " There are three kinds of happiness : 
pleasure, joy, blessedness. Pleasure is the hap- 
piness of the animal nature; joy, of the social na- 
ture; blessedness of the spiritual nature. Pleas- 
ure we share with the animals, joy with one an- 
other, blessedness with God." 

A boy comes home at Christmas from college. 
At the close of the Christmas dinner he says, 



22 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

" Mother, I haven't had as good a dinner as this 
since I was home at Thanksgiving." That is 
pleasure. 

Friends come in; there are games, dancing, 
quiet talks in nooks and corners; in brief, a good 
time. That is joy. 

By and by the friends depart, the children go 
to their rooms, the father closes the house, the 
mother sits meditatively by the dying embers of 
the fire, living over the birth, the childhood, the 
early youth of her boy, and looking forward with 
a mother's hope to his future, and as her husband 
comes to remind her that it is time to retire, she 
draws a sigh of quiet joy, and says, as she reaches 
out to take his hand, " John, we are certainly blest 
in our children!" That is blessedness. Such 
a blessedness, deep, sweet, spiritual, eternal, is 
held out in the opening words of Christ's dis- 
course to those who will dare to walk after him, 
and to attain to that heavenly character which he 
here portrays. 

Observe that these are the many qualities of 
one character, and not the separate qualities of 
many characters. He is not describing the 
classes of the kingdom, but the perfect harmony 
and balance of each citizen of the kingdom. Pa- 
tience, lowliness, spiritual aspiration, kindliness, 
purity, peaceableness, a willingness to serve and 



CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 23 

to suffer in that service, are to dwell together as 
happy brethren in the one house of character. 
These are the heights of the soul — the mountain 
peaks to be attained. There is not one quality 
here enumerated that is not hard to learn, difficult 
to attain. He who climbs to these altitudes must 
have purpose and resolve. Such a purpose and 
resolve as can only be maintained while he hears 
that voice of Blessedness singing him on his up- 
ward way. 

Who but the most impracticable, ignorant and 
unobservant of men could ever think that these 
were to be attained at a bound? Meekness, pa- 
tience, kindliness, suffering — do they not speak 
of years for their completion? Do they not drop 
with the sweat of the labor of attainment? 
These are the octave of the heavenly scale of 
music; he who can sound these notes in right re- 
lation shall go through the world making the har- 
monies of heaven. 

These are the colors, which form the spectrum 
of the heavenly light; combined in their due pro- 
portion they make that pure light which Jesus 
bids us to let shine. All the beauty of holiness 
is from the right and skillful use of these divine 
colors. 

We see again, that the striking mark which 
differentiates and characterizes the citizens of 



24 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

Christ's Kingdom, is determined not by the ex- 
traneous and the adventitious, not by the chance 
or fortune of birth — but by what you may, under 
the divine help, attain for yourself. 

In the kingdoms of this world, in the nations of 
the earth, citizenship is determined largely by 
birth. 

In the XIV Amendment to our Constitution it 
is written, " All persons born or naturalized in 
the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction 
thereof, are citizens of the United States and of 
the State wherein they reside." Other countries 
have statutes which are substantially the same; 
— but in the kingdom of heaven citizenship is 
not determined by where you are, but by what 
you are. All nations, tribes, colors, and races of 
men are eligible to this citizenship. It is the 
universal Kingdom. Jesus was a Jew, but he 
was free from that narrowness of nationalism 
which circumscribed the ancient Israelites. 

Nor is this citizenship determined by " who you 
are." Whole nations have held to the tradition 
that a man's place in the world, his work and 
privileges, his life, in short, is settled by his origin 
or the chance circumstances of his environment. 
In India, a man's caste, carrying with it privi- 
leges, opportunities, obligations and promises, is 
determined by custom and condition wholly with- 



CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 25 

out the choice of the man himself. In the king- 
dom of heaven this is not so — the conditions of 
this citizenship are within the power of the in- 
dividual's own choice — and its blessings are open 
to all. The " what you are," the character of 
the man, is the one sole and unchangeable condi- 
tion of citizenship. The emphasis of Christ's 
teaching is, ever is, throughout this entire dis- 
course laid on character. " Being " is its great 
theme; " to become " its great endeavor. And is 
not the Master, philosophically and practically, 
wise in giving character the place he does in life? 
As man is the highest creature in God's creation, 
so character is the highest level in man. Char- 
acter is the man. The thing to be supremely 
sought in life is not knowledge, for the man of 
knowledge who lacks character is a more danger- 
ous citizen in any community because of his knowl- 
edge. Here ignorance is preferable to knowl- 
edge. Nor is power or place the thing to be su- 
premely desired; for the man of power who lacks 
character is a greater menace to civilization by 
the very possession of power. 

The man of wealth and of talent does not by 
the possession of these enrich the community in 
which he lives, if, while owning these, he still 
lacks that character which makes the possession 
of these safe and helpful. The city, town or 



26 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

State is not the richer but the poorer for having 
him within her midst. But given a character, 
such as is here pictured in Christ's words, and 
power, knowledge, talent and possession is safe 
in his keeping and a real enrichment of life. 

Here we find the root thought from which 
grows that wise, beautiful rule Christ later gives 
— " Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his 
righteousness," — then the world itself is safe in 
your keeping. Christ ever viewed life in its 
broadest aspect, ever regarded and spoke of man 
at his highest level. How this teaching contrasts 
with the wisdom of men and the aims of hu- 
manity! The true man is the spiritual man; the 
rich man is the spiritual man; the strong man is 
the spiritual man; the citizen of the heavenly 
kingdom is the man of the heavenly character. 

Again, do we not find markedly emphasized in 
this Character to which Christ draws our atten- 
tion, what are commonly called the passive ele- 
ments? Lowliness, meekness, patience, kindness, 
peaceableness, suffering, these are all passive, 
rather than active, qualities. The man of the 
Kingdom seems to be determined not so much by 
what he is able to do as by what he is able to bear. 

Says F. W. Robertson, " Before Christ came, 
the heathen had counted for divine the legislative 
wisdom of man — manly strength, manly truth, 



CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 27 

manly justice, manly courage. The life and the 
Cross of Christ shed a splendor from heaven upon 
a new and until then unheard-of order of heroism 
— that which may be called the feminine order." 
The next great principle of living which this 
opening passage seems rightly to contain is this : 
Those who follow the way of life, laid down in 
this discourse shall have this character. Char- 
acter is not attained at a bound, it does not leap 
forth from the life of the man, full grown, as did 
Athene from the head of Zeus. This condi- 
tion of character cannot be too much emphasized. 
There have been dreamers, enthusiasts, idealists, 
in every age, who have thought that the man can 
be made or remade in a moment. As the earth 
was at the beginning without form and void and 
yet in that elemental substance there were the pos- 
sibilities of form, order, beauty and perfection, 
to be called out and developed in the course of 
the ages, so a truer study of man teaches us that 
while within the primitive man, considered indi- 
vidually or collectively, there is the possibility of 
moral and spiritual order, power and perfection, 
yet these qualities are developed and called out 
only after long courses of training and contact 
with the things of life. He who thinks other- 
wise has not rightly interpreted God's way in the 
earth, nor His way in the world of men. " One 



28 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a 
thousand years as one day," and the element of 
time is necessary in the development of such a 
perfection of character as is revealed in these 
words of the Christ. Adam did not begin a man 
of character — nor does a boy begin with a char- 
acter, but each of them begins his career with the 
capabilities of a character. 

In the presence of these words of Christ, we 
stand before the Alplike altitudes of manhood 
— and it means a climb for their attainment; in 
these words a course is set before us, and it be- 
speaks a training; here is pictured a character, 
a heavenly character, and it means living. 

Alas, for that one who dreams that mere re- 
solve, or that a single act of will, gives such a 
character. 

Moreover, it seems to me that even a little 
thought upon this curriculum which Christ here 
sets down for those who are to be learners at 
his feet will teach us that this character is to be at- 
tained through doing, living, Action. How does 
the child learn anything, in this present scheme 
of things which we have called the world? How 
does he learn walking, talking, the use of his 
powers material and immaterial? Is it not by 
doing? How does the artist attain to his ac- 
curacy of eye and skill of hand? Is it not by 



CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 29 

practice? How does the musician become the in- 
terpreter of the soul through the media of sound? 
Is it not by practice? And does it not tell of 
years of trying, of doing? And a manhood such 
as this here depicted speaks to us of years and 
tears and failures and successes and life. Sleep- 
ing on a dictionary will not give a man the knowl- 
edge of the words it contains. Reading the 
Bible and living on your knees will never make 
" a man of Christ." The religion of the Master 
is eminently practical, and the one who learns this 
way, must be up and doing. 

Moreover, there is a universal law underlying 
the terms and conditions which the Master here 
prescribes for his pupils. The result of action, 
good or bad, is reaction. The result of living, 
is being. This is to interpret life from its inner 
side. The modern psychology has strengthened 
and illustrated this truth of Christ. The physical 
world acts upon the man within; the psychical 
world reacts at the touch of this stimulus; and 
through this action and reaction there comes the 
change in the nerve, the brain, the soul itself, 
the man is built up or the man is broken down, 
made or destroyed according to this law. A 
wrong method of life gives a wrong character — 
a right method of living gives a resultant Tight- 
ness of being. Not that this is the whole of the 



3 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

truth, but this is one important phase of the 
truth — the one upon which our minds are rest- 
ing at this present moment. While it is true that 
environment makes the man, it is likewise true 
that man makes the environment, but it is to this 
first limb of the twofold principle that our thought 
is here directed. 

Therefore and always, religion must have law, 
principle, precept and command — and rightly 
is a true religion denominated " a way of Life." 
The great end of " the living," " the doing," is not 
for the deeds in themselves, but for the sake of 
the being and of the character of the man which 
is thus developed. How far man has gone astray 
in this very region! Prayer is not for prayer's 
sake — nor sacrifices for sacrifices' sake — nor 
form for form's sake, but all for man's sake, and 
through him for God's sake — and what God 
most desires is the right development of His chil- 
dren. The purpose of Christ's teaching is to 
make men; men like those having the manhood 
portrayed in this picture. Men who in their re- 
lations to God are dependent, humble, submissive 
and receptive; men who in their relation to their 
fellows are patient, kind and serviceful, for even 
in these qualities of character the Master gives 
us a foreshadowing of the bifurcated law of love, 
to which he later calls explicit attention. Men 



CHARACTER WORTH HAVING 31 

who realize, through living the life, the " Blessed- 
ness " which comes alone from being. 

To return to our point of starting — these 
texts tell us that those who attain this char- 
acter have that character which is worth possess- 
ing. This is true because of the fruits borne of 
such a character; these are denominated collec- 
tively as " Blessedness." A man cannot be a man 
like this and not be blessed. In spite of the vain 
speculations of the philosophers, in spite of the 
learned disquisitions of the men of Ethic — our 
Teacher says here, most plainly, that goodness 
and gladness cannot be separated; righteousness 
and blessedness cannot be divorced, God hath 
married them at the beginning, and what He hath 
joined together no man can put asunder. 

When the practical man of this world inquires, 
" What things are worth doing? " the Master an- 
swers him, briefly and completely, " those things 
which result in such a being." These are worth 
while, because of the Divine approval — " The 
Beatitudes," as they are called, begin and end with 
" for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." 

Christ himself is the Teacher and the pattern 
for just such a character. These qualities were 
possessed and exemplified in his way of life. 
These are the ways of pleasantness and these are 
the paths of peace. These are the texts, if you 



32 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

will, of sermons which Jesus is to preach to his 
disciples, in his life, the outlines of which are 
given on this Occasion. These are the subjects 
upon which the Teacher is about to instruct his 
scholars, and the motto written in letters of gold 
across the wall of the schoolroom, that the earnest 
scholar may ever have it in mind, is this: " If 
ye know these things, happy are ye if ye DO 
them." 

In the school of Christ, as in the school of this 
practical world, the guiding star must be, " Esse 
quam videre." 



CHAPTER II 

LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 
Matt, v, 13-16 

IN his opening words Christ has told his fol- 
lowers what they are to be — he now turns to 
the thought of why they are to be. As he has 
placed before them their relation and obligation 
to the God who is above them, he now puts be- 
fore them their relation and obligation to the 
world which is about them. Unselfishness is 
slain with a single stroke; the purpose in living 
is established in a sentence. If " to be " is the 
end of a man for himself, if character is the great 
object of individual human existence, then it fol- 
lows, logically, that character is developed only 
in doing; character is expressed only in action. 
The solidarity of the race, the brotherhood of 
man, the obligation of service, is established at 
the outset. 

As we study the story of creation we see that 
everything in the earth exists for the sake of 
something else, as well as for itself. The vege- 
table kingdom rests on, and is possible only be- 
cause of, the mineral; the animal depends upon 
33 



34 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

the vegetable, the human is related to them all. 
We are debtors to every realm of creation, and 
man bears a relation to his fellows. As we view 
the world of nature from the standpoint of mod- 
ern science we find this truth emphasized — the 
interrelation and interdependence of every part 
of this great scheme of material things with 
every other part. 

Recently I asked a professor of astronomy in 
one of our large colleges whether he did not think 
it probable that in this infinite universe other 
spheres than ours were inhabited. He answered: 
" Of course it may be so, but when I consider 
how many causes, forces, factors, must unite for 
the balance, adjustment and preservation of this 
World, I can easily conceive that it might be that 
the solar system with its millions of stars, with 
its planets and its heavenly bodies, exists for the 
sake of this world alone." 

As we come more and more to the conviction 
of the interdependence and interrelation of great 
and small, for the production of an ordered, stu- 
pendous whole, in the world physical, so Scrip- 
ture teaches us that before all, back of all, sus- 
taining all, operating in and through all, is God. 
As science teaches us that nothing in the world 
exists for its own sake, so Scripture teaches us 
that God does not, cannot, live a selfish, uncom- 



LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 35 

municative, useless life. 

Therefore how eminently in accord with the 
nature of things, how preeminently proper, is this 
teaching of Christ, that man who partakes of 
God's nature and is made in His image should 
live for a purpose, and must have something to 
do for other than self in this present world? — 
in other words, he must live a useful life. 

If one should ask, " Why should a man live 
a useful life? " the briefest answer is, " Because 
he is fitted for it." The possession of a power 
is the pledge of its use; the condition of the 
ownership of a talent is its right employment. 
Consider man as a mechanism merely, as a piece 
of machinery fitted to do work, and where wih\ 
you find his equal? I have seen the hand of man 
likened to a chest of tools, and it is not an inapt 
illustration. Man's hand contains a variety of 
pincers, a hammer, chisels, auger, etc. The orig- 
inal meaning of " manufacture " was handmade, 
and even to-day, in spite of the perfected ma- 
chinery, for the production of the best articles 
we need to go back to first principles, and make 
things by hand. Add to this the power of brain, 
imagination, contrivance and invention — and 
what cannot man do for the promotion and bet- 
terment of the creature-comforts of his fellows? 

Enter the realm of the moral and intellectual, 



3 6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

consider the treasures of philosophy, science, 
poetry, art, music, architecture and the like — 
and we see in the rich catalogue of what man 
has done, what he is fitted to do, to advance and 
elevate the life of his brothers. 

Add to this man's spiritual equipment, if for 
argument's sake we may separate these gifts from 
others, and we behold the rich possession of the 
Christian man — the truth and power which are 
his to bless and brighten all life. 

Not only do we find, in reason and in Scrip- 
ture, that these gifts are bestowed upon man that 
he may increase and use them unselfishly, but we 
likewise find within the man himself a court and 
judge to whom he must answer, for the use or 
misuse of these possessions. The man who lives 
the useful life is the man who lives the blessed 
life in this respect, and is the man who has the 
commendation of his conscience. The man who 
lives uselessly is, in general terms, the miserable 
man, and the man who is under the condemnation 
of that same inward mentor. A man can do no 
worse than to do nothing at all. And it is in 
response to this unchangeable edict of nature, 
that many a man, feeling himself to be no longer 
of use in the world, has adjudged himself worth- 
less, and taken his own life. In an interesting 
book, a study of Fetichism among the Africans 



LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 37 

in the Congo region, I find a supreme illustra- 
tion of this desire in man to be of use to his fel- 
lows. Says the writer, in substance, " If there 
were no hereafter, if I did not believe in a world 
to come, and did not feel the need of using this 
present world as a preparation for the future 
world, still the mere present utility of blessing 
and bettering the condition of life among these 
poor Africans, the reward of making lighter their 
burden and brighter their lot for this present 
time, would be reason enough for my service and 
my sacrifice." 

We find still another ground in reason for liv- 
ing an active, useful life — because there is such 
need for it in this world. God never made a man 
to be idle, he has put him into a world that has 
constant need of his care; the earth is calling for 
his thought, the creatures of earth are asking for 
his help. The terms of the original lease under 
which this earth was left to man for a season are 
that he should " till and subdue " it; while he 
fulfills these conditions he shall have dominion; 
as long as he lives up to these terms he shall be 
master; but only so. Let him violate this first 
contract, and the earth is taken away from him 
and becomes his master. There is not a garden 
that grows that does not call lustily every morn- 
ing through the summer season for the care, at- 



38 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

tention and service of its owner. The natural 
tendency of all things earthly, material and im- 
material, to retrograde and degenerate if neg- 
lected and left to themselves, is nature's uni- 
versal call to man to be up and doing, and to 
fulfill this command of Jesus. 

To the man who has the observation to read 
the facts of nature and the ability to interpret 
the lessons of nature, the obligation and worth 
of the active and useful life is imperative. 

" I went by the field of the slothful, and by 
the vineyard of the man void of understanding; 
and lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and 
nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone 
wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and 
considered it well : I looked upon it, and received 
instruction." 1 

It is because it is in accord with the con- 
stitution of things that Christ's command is 
spoken. While some say it is right for man to 
live a useful life because Christ commands it, it 
would be more true to say that he commands it 
because it is right. Christ commands the useful 
life because it is a prime necessity of right living 
— who rightly lives must truly serve. 

If we bring this principle down to the world 
of men, we are here taught by our Master what 

1 Prov., 24:30-32. 



LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 39 

it is to be useful. It is in the first place to be 
a preservative element in the world. " Ye are 
the salt of the earth " is not used in a compli- 
mentary, but in a real, sense. Sodium is one of 
the elements; its relation to life is universal and 
important. It is present in the composition of 
water, rocks, plants and animals. Its preserva- 
tive character is illustrated by J. E. Johnson in 
these words, " The whole globe would be one 
stupendous mass of putrefaction but for the saline 
nature of the ocean." This statement may be 
applied in a moral as well as a material sense. It 
is at least a significant fact that sodium is present 
in all living organisms; it is a life element. It 
is salt which prevents corruption and dissolution, 
and when we realize that Jesus was talking to a 
people who lived in a country where the tempera- 
ture rose high at certain seasons, and where ice 
was probably not used or little used for refrigera- 
tion, as it is among us, his figure of speech be- 
comes most apposite. What he says to his fol- 
lowers is this: If the world is to be kept morally 
pure and spiritually fresh it must be by the lives 
of those who have within them the salt of my 
spirit and teaching. It is the Christ-life which 
is to-day the savior of the world. And in that 
proportion and to that degree shall men be of 
use to their kind, as they possess or lack the ele- 



4 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

ments of that character, which he has exhibited 
to them in his opening words, and which forms 
the savor of the " living salt." 

Further, says our Master, to live a useful life 
is to be an illuminative force in the world. " Ye 
are the light of the world." The connection of 
light with life is inseparable and vital. Where 
light is there is life, where life is there light must 
be. " Let there be light " was the first com- 
mand at the dawn of Creation. And it is through 
the agency of light that physical life has been 
called into being and has been maintained. The 
meaning of the light of the sun to the world is 
a subject hard to exhaust; it means warmth, 
cheer, health, beauty, energy, life. We are in 
sympathy with those early worshipers of the sun, 
who bowed in worship before the brightness and 
glory, before the beauty and majesty, of the great 
King of Day — they had discovered a great law 
of nature. 

The light of the sun is, indeed, the source and 
spring of all our physical life and energy. The 
power of physical life is not from within man but 
from without, from the great center of our physical 
system, mediated to us through the multiplied 
physical agencies of this material world. Says 
Professor Tyndall in his " Fragments of Sci- 
ence " : " The sunbeams excite our interest and 



LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 41 

invite our investigation; but they also extend their 
beneficent influences to our fruits and corn, and 
thus accomplish not only intellectual ends, but 
minister at the same time to our material necessi- 
ties." 2 And again, in his lecture on Force, says 
this same author : " But there is still another 
work which the sun performs, and its connection 
with which is not so obvious. Trees and vege- 
tables grow upon the earth, and when burned 
they give rise to heat, and hence to mechanical 
energy." ..." We cannot, however, stop at 
vegetable life, for it is the source, mediate or im- 
mediate, of all animal life. The sun severs the 
carbon from its oxygen and builds the vegetable; 
the animal consumes the vegetable thus formed, 
a reunion of the severed elements takes place, 
producing animal heat. The process of building 
a vegetable is one of winding up ; the process of 
building an animal is one of running down. The 
warmth of our bodies and every mechanical en- 
ergy which we exert, trace their lineage directly 
to the sun. The fight of a pair of pugilists, the 
motion of an army, or the lifting of his own body 
by an Alpine climber up a mountain slope, are 
all cases of mechanical energy drawn from the 
sun." 3 

This is the meaning of physical light to a 

2 TyndalPs " Fragments of Science," I : On the Study of Physics. 

3 Tyndall's " Fragments of Science," I : Force. 



42 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

physical world. These are the first principles of 
science, fundamental facts of life. We may not 
understand all the processes, but the prime facts 
are certain. 

In like manner, says our Teacher, spiritual light 
is the source of spiritual energy — that man who 
has the light within him is that man who sheds 
the light about him, and where the light is there 
is the life also. 

We need but mention such lives, symbolized 
by the names of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle — 
Augustine, Paul, Luther, Bunyan and Lincoln 
— and Jesus the Christ, the greatest of them all; 
we need but consider for a moment their effect 
and influence in the world, for beautifying, vivi- 
fying, glorifying, those with whom they came into 
touch, to realize the meaning of the Master's 
teaching, " Ye are the light of the world." 
" Let your light shine before men." 

If now we ask, How does this usefulness prac- 
tically express itself in the world — of person- 
ality? Jesus here by implication answers that 
question. 

It is not things, nor principles, nor truths, but 
Persons that are to be the preservative of the 
moral and spiritual life in a moral and spiritual 
world. 

It is not things, nor principles, nor truths, but 



LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 43 

PERSONS that are the illuminating and energizing 
centers of the moral and spiritual life in a moral 
and spiritual world. " I am the light of the 
world," " Ye are the light of the world," is the 
formula containing these truths. 

This is the teaching of the Christ — and this 
is in accord with the facts of life and with the 
conclusions of all sane, sound men. In that eth- 
ical handbook of Buddhism the " Dhammapada 
or Path to Virtue," this truth is expressed in 
these words, " The scent of flowers does not 
travel against the wind, nor that of sandal wood 
or of Tagara and Malika flowers, but the odor 
of good people travels even against the wind; a 
good man pervades every place." Again, in the 
same book, " A man does not become a Brah- 
manna by his plaited hair, by his family or by 
birth: in whom there is truth and righteousness 
he is blessed, he is a Brahmanna." 

The community is good or bad according to 
the good or bad persons in it. It may have the 
completest knowledge — the finest system of edu- 
cation, the most perfect theology, the latest sci- 
ence, and yet be a community of persons whose 
lives are savorless, because these things are 
merely trifled with and not eaten, assimilated, ap- 
propriated and expressing themselves in the 
daily power of personality. If the Sabbath is to 



44 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

be preserved it must be preserved, not by lectures, 
pamphlets, tractates on the subject, but by per- 
sons loving the Sabbath and living the Sabbath, 
in accord with its fundamental ideas of a day of 
rest and worship. If the Bible is to keep its 
place and influence in the world, this must be ac- 
complished by those persons who give the Bible 
its right place and its due influence in their daily 
lives. If the home is to be kept from degrada- 
tion and disintegration, this can be attained only 
by those persons who live true and loyal to the 
homes which they represent. This phase of the 
question Jesus further elaborates when he speaks 
of the necessity of Living the Pure Life. 

If the Kingdom of God is to make any real 
progress, this must be by persons, daily, hourly, 
on work days and worship days, in business, and 
in associations with their fellows, expressing in 
their actions and in the multiplied manifestations 
of their lives, those principles for which the King- 
dom stands. 

The religion which Jesus taught is eminently 
practical; it descends to the most trivial and most 
commonplace matters of our ordinary lives, as we 
shall see in his later expositions. The value of a 
good man to a community is hard to overesti- 
mate, yet his worth is faintly figured in the nine- 
teenth chapter of Genesis, where God says to 



LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 4 5 

Abraham, " if there are ten righteous in Sodom, 
I will not destroy it for the ten's sake." A good 
man is worth as much to a community to-day as 
he ever was. And surely it is a fact that the 
good people are " the salt of the earth," and the 
Christ-like are " the light of the world." 

How more clearly and forcibly could we have 
presented to us the practical character of the reli- 
gion of Christ? His religion is not compliance 
with set forms and prescribed ceremonies — it is 
not a service that is satisfied with temple worship 
and temple rite. His religion is a religion of the 
heart, a religion of the spirit, a religion that in- 
fluences and determines the center and springs of 
action of the entire man. It is a religion that 
must be kept by the entire man or it is not kept 
by the man at all. It concerns a man in all 
relations of all his life — the highest and the low- 
est — the sublimest moment of vision and in the 
doing of so simple a thing as giving a cup of 
cold water to a thirsty soul. " Whether ye eat, 
or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory 
of God." 

Does not this broad and beautiful teaching of 
what Christ means by religion, mark the absurd- 
ity and worthlessness of what men have often 
taught and practiced for religion? Does it not 
condemn, in a sentence, the mechanical, formal, 



46 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

cold, periodic, ritualistic, external, pharisaic ele- 
ments of religion as not of the essence of his reli- 
gion? And are not these the very features of re- 
ligion on which men of a former day and men 
of the present day have too often laid their em- 
phasis? Form of baptism, method of worship, 
written or ex tempore prayer, metaphysics of the 
creeds, while they may have a place, while they 
may have an importance, to some minds, yet their 
place is not the first nor is their importance the 
greatest in a religion which lays so little stress on 
externalities, and so great an emphasis on the real- 
ities; which says in so many words, "Have the 
spirit of religion and let the form take care of 
itself." 

It is this reality and breadth of the religion of 
Jesus which commends many a life that the 
church has condemned, and which condemns many 
a life which the church has commended. When 
we consider the height and depth, the breadth and 
fullness, of that religion which Jesus taught, when 
we realize that it is co-extensive and coincident 
with the totality of a man's life, then we under- 
stand, as never before, that to be a person of re- 
ligion after Christ's sense is an interminable 
work. A man may learn a trade in a few months, 
and be a master-workman; a man may know his 
profession or calling in a few years, and become 



LIVE A USEFUL LIFE 47 

an authority; a man may attain to almost any 
earthly accomplishment in time; but to be really 
a man of religion is to be something that is coin- 
cident with all trades, callings, accomplishments, 
works; to be something that continues through 
life and forever and ever. 

The maxim which Jesus here gives his learners 
is this: " Be, in order that you may do." 

The man who has the salt of the kingdom 
within him, the man who is himself lighted by the 
spirit of Jesus, cannot fail to live a useful life. 



CHAPTER III 

LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 
Matt, v, 17-20 

GROWTH is a fundamental mark of all life; 
where there is life there is growth; where 
there is no growth there is no life. The religion 
of Jesus is a life, and he came that they might 
have life and have it in evermore abundance 1 . 
With the gift of life in all its phases, which comes 
from God, there of necessity comes with it the 
power and certainty of growth. When God im- 
bued dead matter with the royal gift of life, the 
possibility and promise of progress were included 
in that gift. Within the tiny seed of physical 
life was wrapped all the development, all the ad- 
vancement, all the progress of that life, from the 
earliest primordial germ to the highest, most per- 
fectly organized form of life which we find to-day. 
The path from the first most simple form to the 
last most perfect form is termed the way of prog- 
ress. 

Progress is the watchword and slogan of to- 
day. Men have often feared and frequently af- 
firmed that religion destroys progress. Too 
48 



LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 49 

often has this fear been realized because men 
have accepted and adopted a dead rather than a 
living religion. That which differentiates the re- 
ligion of Jesus from any other religion that has 
ever been known is that the religion of Christ is 
the religion of life, and hence the religion of prog- 
ress. Plainly, in this passage, as well as else- 
where, does Jesus declare that religion does not 
destroy, but per contra the true religion, the re- 
ligion which he taught, is the promise and 
prophecy of progress to perfection. 

" I am not come to destroy the law " (law, 
which is simply a formula of the way in which 
God is working out the development of the race), 
but to bring it to its fulfillment and perfection. 
It is the vital, living, progressive element in the 
religion of Christ which makes it suitable to all 
men of all ages; it is this which takes such a hold 
upon the hearts of men; it is the fact and prin- 
ciple of this progress which we would seek to ex- 
hibit in this chapter. 

In these words, " I am not come to destroy but 
to fulfill," we have the Master's promise of prog- 
ress to completion. Jesus is speaking in this dis- 
course to his disciples on the great subject of life 
— and here he intimates to them the fact of 
growth and the large lines along which this life 
must develop. 



5o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

If we view the unfolding of life, in the records 
that are left for us in the book of nature, we read 
that there has ever been a steady progress. We 
observe that life has unfolded from the simplest 
forms to the simpler, to the simple, to the com- 
plex, the more complex, the most complex. 
Whatever may be the truth or falsehood of the 
evolutionary theory as an explanation of the 
origin or variation of living species, this much is 
clear, that there has been an upward progress in 
all living organisms. 

As an incident of this progress we observe that 
old forms have passed away, old conditions have 
been changed, whole races of creatures have dis- 
appeared, that they might give place to the new, 
and the new has ever taken the place of the old. 
This is one great law of the physical world. 
That which is true in the world of nature is true 
in the world of men, because men are part of 
the world of nature. 

History reveals like progress with biology — 
old customs, old institutions, old languages, old 
nations, have gradually disappeared, and the new 
has come in to take their places. What has been 
true of the whole of the life of man has, likewise, 
been true of the parts of it; myth and fable have 
yielded place to fact and history, astrology and 
alchemy with all their fascination and with such 



LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 51 

truth and use as they had, have been supplanted by 
modern science ; and likewise religion has felt the 
touch and change of time, has broken the shell 
of its former, narrower self and has built for it- 
self statelier mansions to accommodate its larger, 
growing spirit. Old practices, old creeds, old 
forms, old rites, may pass, must pass, because the 
religion which Jesus Christ taught is living, and 
so keeps pace with the progress of the ages. 
Jesus here tells his disciples that this is the way 
of God's working, which is only another name 
for God's law. 

In this teaching of the progress of the religion 
which Jesus exhibits, he further shows that the 
progress is not to be by the destruction of that 
which has been; his work is not the destruction 
of the law and the prophets, but the promotion 
and furtherance of those very things for which 
they stood. The old law is not abrogated, but 
interpreted and expanded — made fuller and 
more binding by this very principle of progress. 
His disciples must not think that the law was 
worthless because it now comes in new form. 
The old law must still be maintained in its prin- 
ciple, and never can be abrogated, for it is the 
law of God. The old law contains within it the 
new, had they but the spiritual eyes to see it. It 
is of the old law that the new is born, under the 



52 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

quickening touch of his interpretation. The new 
law was in the old as the full flower is within the 
seed, and as the " child is father to the man." 
He had not come to teach men to break the law 
■ — ■ those who broke and taught men so to do 
should be called the least in the kingdom; and it 
was those who respected, taught and did the law 
who should be called great in this heavenly king- 
dom. No, it was not to destroy, nor to weaken, 
nor to make less binding that law which had been 
a guide to their fathers for so many years, that 
law which had brought their nation to such honor 
and glory, that he was speaking, but that this law 
might be made fuller, more far reaching, more 
binding, more penetrative and pervasive. To 
keep and honor the law, as their fathers and 
teachers had done, for so many centuries, was not 
enough for these children of a larger growth — 
while this might do for those who lived in the 
dawn of the centuries it would never do for these 
who were living in his day and under the light 
of the glorious Gospel of the Christ. 

This the Master makes very plain to them — 
he leaves no doubt in the matter — he says to 
them in so many words, " For I say unto you, 
that except your righteousness shall exceed the 
righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye 
shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of 



LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 53 

heaven." And then in the following sections, he 
proceeds to quote from the old law, after the 
letter, and interprets it in the new way, after the 
spirit. 

Says the Master, " Ye have heard," quoting 
the old law, " thou shalt not kill." " But I say 
unto you," this law must go deeper than a mere 
outward observance — it must lay hold of the 
heart and be made to read, " Thou shalt not 
hate." 

" Ye have heard, thou shalt not commit adul- 
tery." " But I say unto you, thou shalt have a 
pure heart." 

" Ye have heard, thou shalt not forswear." 
" But I say unto you, thou shalt live in such ac- 
cord with the truth — that thou shalt not need 
to swear at all." 

Is this not progress, advance, growth immedi- 
ate and growth prospective? 

What Jesus seeks to inculcate is a more per- 
fect and fuller keeping of the law — his law looks 
toward the inward reality of love, purity and 
truth, rather than to the outward conformity, 
signified in murder, adultery and forswearing. 

This certainty and promise of progress is 
given to us in Christ's attitude toward his own 
life work. What evidence had he of success in 
his work, after such devotion, such teaching, such 



54 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

works — a handful of followers. What cause 
had he for expectations or encouragement — 
priests and rulers against him, Pharisees and 
Sadducees seeking to overthrow him, the people 
of the land but feebly and fearfully following 
him. Yet what hope, nay confidence, nay cer- 
tainty of success had he ! " Heaven and earth 
may pass away, but my word cannot pass away." 
He was never a despondent, never a disheartened 
and never a defeated, man. He knew that the 
times would grow to his teaching, because he 
knew the power and operation and progress of 
the truth. Therefore he could say to them with 
confidence, The kingdom of heaven is like unto 
a grain of mustard seed — very, very small in 
its beginnings, but it shall become great indeed. 
It is like the leaven, working secretly, silently, 
slowly, but it shall leaven the entire lump of life. 

And while he knew the certainty of growth, he 
also knew the law of growth, " First the blade 
and then the ear and then the full corn in the 
ear," and so he was content to work and wait and 
know. 

Following this hint which Jesus gives us, 
that the law of progress obtains in the things of 
the kingdom of heaven, let us apply the teaching 
to those facts that may come under our observa- 
tion, and is it not evident that there is this pro- 



LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE $$ 

gressive element in the revelation of that reli- 
gion which has come from God? Is not the 
revelation in Scripture a progressive revelation, 
coincident with the development of mankind? 
" I have many things to say unto you, but ye can 
not bear them now." 1 What are the earliest 
forms of teaching concerning God found in the 
Bible? Are not these truths of God given to us 
in types, figures, story-form? We are not now 
considering them at all critically nor as to their 
content, but only asking concerning their form. 
The story of the Creation — the story of the 
Fall — the story of the two brothers — the story 
of the Deluge — the story of the high tower — 
these are the earliest forms of the Bible teaching, 
and how well they are adapted to the child mind 
we well know. Then follows the form of biog- 
raphy — lessons taught in the lives of great char- 
acters. Men are made to appear before us and 
the principle appears in the person. This is a 
later form adapted to a larger growth. Then 
God is revealed in detached precepts, ceremonies, 
rites, things to be done, that principles may be 
learned in the doing. Then comes the time of 
a larger freedom, a more spiritual revelation, 
given by the prophets. Then after a long time 
comes the Christ. He gave very few precepts, 

1 Jno. xvi, 12. 



56 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

had little to do with form, but much with spirit. 
This is the religion of principle. This is the re- 
ligion adapted to a more mature age — to chil- 
dren of a larger growth. It was principle, prin- 
ciple, principle that Jesus taught, and insisted 
upon — and this is suited to the liberty of the 
Gospel and to the individuality of spirit. Thus 
we see that the revelation that has been made is 
from the simpler and concrete to the more com- 
plex and abstract, and yet — that which is new 
in the revelation has been ever born out of that 
which is old, the earliest stories of Genesis agree 
largely with the latest principles of the Gospel 
teaching, and " in the beginning God " is the seed 
from which the entire organism has grown. 

That there is this progressive element in the 
religion of Christ is shown from a mere glance 
at the relation of this religion to the progress of 
civilization. Men to-day are better fed, better 
clothed, better housed, living in better material 
and physical conditions, surrounded with more 
" creature comforts," because of the principle, 
" Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." And 
when it comes to the social relations of men, the 
advance and betterment is directly traceable to 
the progressive element in the religion of Christ. 

Says Richard Storrs, 2 " The religion which had 

2 For a full discussion and evidencing of this entire question 



LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 57 

shown God to mankind, so as before he had not 
been conceived, the same religion showed man 
to himself, so as before he had not been imag- 
ined, in the greatness of his nature, in his im- 
mortality." " In regard to this conception of the 
soul, its dignity and worth, the race has been a 
new one, since Jesus taught it, and so far as his 
religion has gone." 

As the religion of Jesus gave birth to a " new 
conception of man," so did it give rise to a new 
conception of woman. " Just so soon, and just 
so far, as Christianity gained its place in the em- 
pire, the position of woman, social and legal, in- 
stantaneously improved; and this was the effect 
of direct, immediate, constant pressure, from the 
religion brought by Jesus." 

Says our writer further, " Of the universality 
of slavery in the world into which this new reli- 
gion entered, you need not be reminded." But 
the times have changed from the day when one- 
half of the Roman population were slaves — the 
race has progressed, and slavery, in its cruder 
forms, forever has been abolished from the civ- 
ilized nations. " The Sermon on the Mount, 
God's affectionate and watchful fatherhood of all, 
the brotherhood of disciples, the mutual duty and 

see " The Divine Origin of Christianity — Indicated by its His- 
torical Effects," by Richard Storrs, D.D., LL.D. 



5 8 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

common immortality of poor and rich — these 
were the forces before which slavery inevitably 
fell." Through the preaching of the Carpenter's 
Son labor has been elevated to a new dignity. 
That life of work which in former days was as- 
signed to the slaves and by them despised and 
counted a shame and a curse, by the teaching of 
that one who said, " My Father worketh hitherto 
and I work," has been raised to the divine priv- 
ilege of service, which is a command laid upon 
all men and all classes. 

Says Lyman Abbott, 3 " He reversed the 
world's standard of values. He taught that 
wealth consists in character, not in possession. 
He reversed the world's measure of greatness, 
He that is greatest among you he shall be your 
servant." 

Everywhere to-day where Christianity is 
taught and followed, the emphasis is laid on serv- 
ice, not for self, but for our fellows. " Praying 
is seeking strength for service; psalm-singing is 
giving thanks for the privilege of serving; but the 
service is in hospitals, mission schools, church 
schools, college settlements, boys' clubs, girls' 
clubs, political and social reforms — a thousand 
philanthropies, some material, some intellectual, 
some spiritual; but all seeking one great end — 

3 " Christianity and Social Problems," Lyman Abbott, p. 20. 



LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 59 

the promotion of human welfare and human hap- 
piness." 4 

Even the governments of the world's nations, 
where the religion of Christ has made itself felt, 
have been changed in the purpose and object of 
their existence. In the older nations and in the 
former time, the people existed for the sake of 
the State — it was the people who were the serv- 
ants and the State which was the served; to-day 
it is a common and well-recognized principle of 
political science that the government exists for the 
sake of the people, and is to be such a govern- 
ment as shall best serve the greatest number. 

Nor could we pass over this general progress 
which has been experienced in every department 
of human affairs, under the vivifying touch of the 
spirit of Christ's religion, without speaking a few 
plain words on a much mistaken matter. The 
statement has gone forth and has been accepted 
from of old, that the religion of Christ, the 
church and the clergy, have been the great op- 
ponents of intellectual growth and progress. 
Take the narrowest, most positive form which the 
Christian religion has perhaps ever assumed, the 
Church of Rome, and do we not find in her midst 
spirits who have caught and been influenced by 
this progressive spirit of the religion of Christ? 

*Ibid., p. 33. 



60 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

There was Wycliffe, who was the " morning star 
of the Reformation " ; Huss, the promoter of lib- 
erty of thought; Luther, the strength of the 
liberal movement in the sixteenth century. While 
the mediaeval and even the modern church has 
been like the old Jewish church, in its attempt to 
put the new wine of progress into the old skins 
of set form, yet there have been glorious excep- 
tions to this and these exceptions by those who 
were the followers of the religion of Christ. 

Witness the part the monks and the monasteries 
have played in the preservation of knowledge and 
the making of books; witness the part the Puritan 
has played in the educational system of America. 
" All the early settlers of New England paid 
great attention to instructing their children; first 
at home or in the ministers' houses, and then in 
public schools." " When the Puritan spirit be- 
gan to decline there was a falling off in the schools 
and an increase of illiteracy; but the love of learn- 
ing never died out, and the free schools never 
were abandoned." 5 The motto of the Puritans 
was " Give light and the darkness will dispel it- 
self. Give education and everything else will 
right itself in time." And observe that at this 
period of our nation's history the action of the 

5 " The Puritan in England, Holland and America," by Doug- 
las Campbell, Vol. I, p. 30. 



LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 61 

government was virtually the action of the 
church. Witness to-day the vital relation that 
Christian missions everywhere bear to general 
education; in every country or section of country 
where the missionary goes, the school goes with 
him; and then cease to be discouraged by the 
ignorant statement of the ignorant, that the reli- 
gion of Christ has always been opposed to edu- 
cation and the progress of knowledge. He who 
in this particular feels inclined to criticise the 
critics, has ample reason to do so, for the real 
facts of the case are that the greatest opponents 
to the progress of science and invention have been 
from the ranks of the scientists. 

" The great physicians and philosophers of the 
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Huygens, 
Bernouilli, Cassini, Leibnitz, most of them disci- 
ples of Descartes, were opposed to Newton's 
System of Gravitation." 6 After Harvey's dis- 
covery of the circulation of the blood, it was the 
physicians of his time, who were opposed to him 
and envied him. Dr. Jenner and his views on 
vaccination were opposed by men of his own call- 
ing. It was the Academy of Paris that at- 
tempted to overthrow the microscopic discover- 
ies of Swammerdam and Leeuwenhoeck, a cen- 

6 Fid. here et seq., " The Philosophical Basis of Theism," by 
Samuel Harris, D.D., LL.D., pp. 319-344. 



62 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

tury after they were made, with the sneer, " One 
can generally see with the microscope whatever 
one imagines ! " 

Observe this, that when the doctrine of evolu- 
tion was introduced, it was opposed by scientists 
as well as by theologians; and it was accepted by 
theologians as well as by scientists; Professor 
Huxley's biography, written by his son, affords 
ample and interesting testimony to this fact. 

Now if we turn from the negative to the posi- 
tive side of this question, we find from the earliest 
times to the very latest hour that churchmen, 
clergymen, believers in and followers of the re- 
ligion of Christ have been identified with the pro- 
motion and progress of every form of human 
knowledge, whether in science, politics, philoso- 
phy, history or what not. Such names as Sir 
Humphrey Davy, Linnaeus, Sir Isaac Newton, 
Kepler, Lord Bacon and a host of others might 
be called to the witness-stand to testify, impar- 
tially and equally, to their labors for the progress 
of human knowledge, and to their belief in the 
Christ and his religion. 

The principle of progress which Jesus Christ 
is here establishing finds its illustration and ap- 
plication in those fields of action he is about to 
mention. This passage is introductory to those 
treated of in the rest of this fifth chapter of Mat- 



LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 63 

thew. In the twentieth verse he states the rela- 
tion of the individual to the principle of prog- 
ress. What is true of the mass is true of the in- 
dividual; the life of the follower of the religion 
Jesus taught must live a progressive life. 

This is shown in the life and practice of the 
Master himself. It is sometimes represented 
that the religion of Jesus is completed; that noth- 
ing can be added to it and nothing can be taken 
from it. This is true in the sense that we have 
the complete flower in the good seed, and only 
in this sense. This is true literally for those who 
regard the religion of Christ as a Procrustean 
bed into which the man must be fitted, rather than 
a living germ which, being planted in the man, 
adapts itself to the man and the man to itself, 
modifying and determining the entire life, growth 
and progress of the individual. The man who 
holds the religion of Christ as a thing rather than 
a power, as a form rather than a life, has not 
yet attained to his teaching. 

That this is true is shown by the Master's rela- 
tion to the long-established, highly respected 
forms and institutions in vogue in his day. The 
Sabbath was as old as Creation; it is a command 
for rest and worship one day in seven, applying 
to all times and all peoples. Jesus taught a new 
meaning and way of observing the Sabbath. The 



64 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

outcome of the old formal observance was slav- 
ery: the teaching of the Master is life and liberty. 

" The attitude of Jesus toward these outward 
observances seems to have been at one with the 
attitude of the prophets. He seems to have con- 
stantly pointed out the danger inherent in all ex- 
ternalism, in the use of all forms of symbol, 
whether material or intellectual, the danger of 
transforming a means into an end, of resting in 
the seen instead of reaching through the seen to 
the unseen, of substituting the visible image for 
the invisible idea, the letter for the spirit." 
" Brought to book again and again for breaking 
the Sabbath, he defends himself by the quiet as- 
sertion, ' The Sabbath was made for man and not 
man for the Sabbath,' an assertion which lays its 
ax to the root of all sacramentalism." 7 

A like lesson is given us in Jesus' relation to 
the temple. The temple idea is as old as the 
race — it had its fixed forms and meanings. In- 
terpreted, it read a localized deity, some places 
holy and some things holy. Jesus had little sym- 
pathy with these forms; they were too narrow 
to accommodate the new and larger growth of 
the Gospel spirit. He taught, " Ye are God's 
temple "; all places are holy and all persons may 

7 " The Religion of Christ in the Twentieth Century," Anon., 
pp. 58-123. 



LIVE A PROGRESSIVE LIFE 65 

be holy. " He foretold the destruction of the 
temple, and subverted the very foundations of 
this idolatrous faith by declaring that God can be 
worshiped at any time and in any place, if the 
heart in sincerity and simplicity seeks for Him." 8 

This is the same idea which the Master's fol- 
lower, the apostle Paul, set for himself and ex- 
pressed in the maxim, " Forgetting those things 
which are behind, and looking unto those which 
are before." This idea of progress is the 
idea the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews has 
set for his readers : " Therefore leaving the prin- 
ciples of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto 
perfection; not laying again the foundation of re- 
pentance from dead works, and of faith toward 
God, of the doctrine of baptisms and of laying 
on of hands, and of resurrection from the dead 
and of eternal judgment." 

The meaning of this is that there is to be prog- 
ress in idea, teaching, practice and religious liv- 
ing. 

The effect of progress on the unprogressive 
is evidenced in the story of progress in the entire 
world of life. For the unyielding, the unpro- 
gressive, those who will not recognize life's law 
and obey it, progress means pain, struggle, pro- 

8 " Christianity and Social Problems," by Lyman Abbott, p. 22. 

9 Heb. vi, 1-2. 



66 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

test and elimination. So has it been with the 
races of animals, so with the plant life, so with 
man in every phase of his activity. " Except 
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of 
the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise en- 
ter into the kingdom of heaven." 

The promise of progress to the progressive is 
along this same road of pain and struggle, the 
inevitable accompaniment of all change; doubts 
within and opposition from without, but issuing 
in ever new births, larger life — something to 
learn, to know and to do for the ages of ages. 
Thus, with the constantly enlarging sphere of 
knowledge and privilege comes the constantly en- 
larging responsibility, until life is religion and re- 
ligion is life. 



CHAPTER IV 

LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 
Matt, v, 21-26 

IN those utterances of Christ, which follow in 
the next three sections, we have an illustra- 
tion and an application of that principle which 
has just been propounded: that men are to live 
the progressive life. 

Jesus takes three commands from the old law 
of Moses, the law with which the Jews were fa- 
miliar, and shows how these plain commands 
must be interpreted and applied spiritually if a 
man is really to have that righteousness of life 
which he came to establish. Being an interpreter 
of the law of righteousness, a teacher of man- 
kind, and a corrector of abuses, the Master had 
again and again to show men that the law must 
be interpreted and made to apply in spirit and 
truly, if the law was to be kept. What a man 
was to seek was not form-righteousness, which the 
Pharisees had reduced to a science, but fact- 
'righteousness. One time, as the Master was 
going through Perea, there came running toward 
him a young man, a ruler in the place and an 
67 



68 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

earnest, honest inquirer, who asked him: " What 
must I do to inherit eternal life? " 

" You must keep the commandments," replied 
the Master. 

"Which?" asked the zealous seeker, thinking 
that there might be one he had overlooked. 

" Those very commandments you know already 
— which are summed up in the words, ' Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.' " 

" But," answered the youth, " all these have 
I kept from boyhood." 

So he had, as his fathers and neighbors had 
kept them, as you and I keep them, after the let- 
ter and the outward form. Then the Master did 
for his sake just what he is here doing for his 
disciples' sake, showed the young man that the 
law was a matter of heart and spirit, a matter 
of the inner, secret life — and included not only 
doing nothing to interfere with the neighbor's liv- 
ing his own life and fulfilling his own destiny, but 
besides this included doing all that he could to 
help his neighbor live his life as he ought. 

You have doubtless heard, as I have heard, a 
man say, " The Ten Commandments are enough 
for me; if I keep these I am satisfied, and be- 
lieve all will go well with me here and hereafter." 
And the answer is true, and accords with the Mas- 
ter's teaching, but the question arises, " Are not 



LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 69 

the Ten Commandments too much for you?" 
See how the Master interprets them, and then 
behold their scope and depth of meaning. 

In the passage we have before us we have the 
Master's interpretation of one of the ten words 
of Moses, and that one of the simplest, the most 
obvious and the most universal. " Do not mur- 
der," is a command that most respectable people 
think they have fully kept — but see what Christ 
makes that to mean; and " Thou shalt not kill " 
becomes " Thou shalt not be angry." Jesus is 
here placing before us a picture of the passionate 
man, the man who is ripe for murder. 
' The world's view of that man is very ancient 
and very simple. " Ye have heard, of olden 
time, thou shalt not kill." This command is one 
of the plainest primer principles of the laws of 
all peoples. " The right of an individual to 
life," * is a sine qua non to even the simplest civ- 
ilization. " If there be any rights at all this must 
be one of them, for life is that essential condition 
without which no other right can be exercised. 
Accordingly, usage and law in all nations en- 
deavor to protect it." 

I have never heard of a nation, either ancient 
or modern, nor of a tribe, however primitive, 
which has not had some form of this law. No 

1 " Political Science," Theodore D. Woolsey, § 21. 



7 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

one will deny either the propriety or the force of 
this law — it is clearly recognized in the Old Tes- 
tament law for Israel, was well known among all 
ancient peoples, and even in Africa, Patagonia 
or among the Andaman islanders it obtains with 
varying modifications and conditions of applica- 
tion — but in its essential form it is a law of all 
peoples. 

Civil law, however, applies only to man's out- 
ward conduct, to his overt acts. One may de- 
spise, condemn, hate his fellow as he will, but if 
this inward desire fails of outward expression the 
law has been observed. This is man's interpre- 
tation of the law against murder. According to 
the kingdoms of this world, one who has not vio- 
lated the letter of the law is innocent before the 
law; but, says the Master, what is true for the 
kingdoms of this world is not true for the king- 
dom of heaven, but the law must be interpreted 
and made to apply deeper than overt acts. 

So Jesus gives his view. The soul of mur- 
der is anger, the seed of murder is anger, the sin 
of murder is anger — and a man must keep his 
heart right toward his brother. The passionate 
man, according to Christ's definition, is the man 
easily angry, that is " angry without cause." 
There is such a thing as justifiable anger on the 
part of a good man. The apostle admonishes, 



LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 71 

" Be angry and sin not." I have heard that 
Frederick W. Robertson, the Brighton preacher, 
one day on seeing a dissolute and evil man pass- 
ing by with a pure young girl as his companion, 
was so roused and stirred at the sight that he 
clenched his hands until the nails entered into 
the flesh. Such a feeling on the part of such 
a man was not to his shame but to his honor. 
A while ago I read in a novel of an English 
Colonel's treatment of a boy who served as 
his lackey, an account that fairly made my blood 
boil. The story runs that two men were rivals 
for the hand of a young woman; the one was 
a colonel in the British army and the other was 
a captain in the colonial forces. The colonel 
gained possession of a young lad who had served 
as body-servant to the captain; this boy he abused, 
degraded, debauched and made a drunkard, in 
order to work his evil schemes and to irritate and 
revenge himself on the captain. Here is ground 
for justifiable anger on the part of any man. In- 
deed, the man who could look upon such a deed 
without having his blood boil and free from the 
desire to correct the abuse and punish the of- 
fender, would be a dead, dumb, sapless, travesty 
of manhood. 

The Master himself, when he beheld the deg- 
radation and perversion of the temple by the 



72 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

traffickers in sheep and oxen who were carrying 
on their commercial enterprises in the name of 
religion, was so incensed against them that, mak- 
ing a scourge of small cords, he drove them out, 
saying, " Make not my Father's house an house 
of merchandise." Whatever the learned and art- 
ful commentators may say of this scene, the com- 
mon-sense people will ever interpret it to mean 
that he was justifiably angry against the hypo- 
crites. 

Yes, injustice, wanton cruelty, heartless oppres- 
sion of the weak by the strong, coupled with pie- 
tistic pharisaism merits and receives from honest 
and right-minded men just and righteous wrath. 

The passionate man here referred to is not 
this man, but the man who is uncontrolled, not 
master of himself, whose temper is ever on the 
hair trigger, who goes about with a chip on his 
shoulder, and his eye open for infringement of 
his rights and trespassers on his preserves. Such 
a man is like one of these five-cent mouse traps, 
so delicately and sensitively set that if you jar it 
in the least degree, handle it without the utmost 
caution, breathe upon it more than ordinary, snap 
it goes, and some one is hurt. A look and he is 
incensed, a word and he is in a rage ; the slightest 
crossing of his will and he is ready for violence. 
Such is the passionate man, the Master teaches, 



LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 73 

and the peril of such a heart and temper is fatal. 
It results in bad morals; such a man is angry with 
his brother without cause. The first recorded 
instance in history of such a man shows that it re- 
sulted disastrously. Cain was a man of this 
character — and because of his passionate heart, 
his angry spirit, he hated his brother, and finally 
committed outwardly that which had been born 
inwardly, murder of his brother. Now the man 
who holds his heart in the attitude of anger and 
hate toward his brother is the man who already 
does his brother a wrong, and the man who is 
in constant peril of an open act of injustice and 
injury. 

The psychological course of such a feeling is 
traced in the twenty-second verse of this chapter. 
The man who harbors such a feeling toward his 
brother is the man who must give expression to 
the feeling; the first expression is to hold his 
brother lightly and in contempt — of this feeling 
is born the contemptuous expression, "Raca"; 
by this expression is kindled another more bitter, 
"Thou fool," — he condemns his brother. Now 
the subtle poison of anger is present and will work 
its deadly spell — first the secret springs of 
thought are poisoned, then the dark fountain 
bursts forth in the form of bitter words, then 
follows the contemptuous, unjust, perhaps deadly 



74 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

deeds. The sin which is within the heart hath 
conceived and brought forth its baneful progeny 
— death. 

The sin of murder is within the heart; the 
source of murder is anger — the law against 
murder must be kept in the secret places of the 
man. Now, proceeds the Master, in his ever log- 
ical, orderly way, he who holds this relation to 
his brother is in the fire of hell. How many in- 
stances we have in our daily life of brothers, 
neighbors, friends, who because of this suscepti- 
bility to anger, this passionate disposition, dwell 
in a constant state of animosity, hostility, litiga- 
tion and legal warfare with those with whom they 
should be at peace. 

As I was meditating upon this theme, there came 
into my hands an illustration of the very fact in 
point. It is taken from a Philadelphia newspaper. 
It reads: "After having been dragged through 
the courts for sixty years the lawsuit of A. C. 
against W. Z. was finally decided in court here to- 
day. The suit was over the ownership of a strip 
of land worth about five dollars. The men and 
their families, though neighbors, have not spoken 
to each other for over half a century. The case 
has been in the Supreme Court at least three times, 
and no less than thirty thousand dollars has been 
spent in lawyers' fees and other costs in the litiga- 



LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 75 

tion. When the suits involving the question of 
damages were tried the verdict never exceeded six 
dollars." The cause of such silly, childish and 
wicked conduct on the part of men is a bad heart 
and anger against the brother. The case itself 
has absolutely no merits. How many instances 
of like import might be adduced, did we choose 
to seek them. The Jones County Calf Case is 
an instance of like character. Some may not be 
aware that the classic chancery suit of Jarndyce 
against Jarndyce, satirized in Dickens' " Bleak 
House," is an actual case taken from the English 
law reports. Not a day passes that our news- 
papers do not furnish practical illustration of the 
truth of the Master's teaching. 

Now what is the feeling in the heart, the atti- 
tude of brother toward brother, the relation be- 
tween two who entertain such feelings toward 
each other? Is it not rightly described as " the 
hell of fire"? A sight of our opponent sends 
a shock through the system; the sound of his 
voice burns like vitriol; his success fills us with 
hate; his failure stirs us with unholy glee. What 
now becomes of the great law of God, " Thou 
shalt love thy neighbour as thyself"? 

What is the inner state of the man who hates 
his brother? Is it calm, sweet, benevolent, com- 
forting, cheering, elevating, promotive of his own 



7 6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

or his brother's good? Is it not rather like an 
acid, a constant irritation, a fire of hell within? 
And what must be the heart and spirit of that 
man who is so angry with his brother that he 
would kill him? What is the secret condition of 
that one who kills his brother and is glad? What 
a restless, tossing sea of emotions, what a dance 
of the devils, what a Walpurgis night must en- 
wrap the soul, and craze the mind of a man pre- 
paring to do such a deed ! 

And what of the one who kills and is sorry? 
Can anything ever right the wrong? You have 
taken away that which cannot be restored; robbed 
that which cannot be returned; broken that which 
cannot be mended. To be in the state of mind 
resultant upon such a deed, is to welter in the 
fire of hell — with its remorse, its fear, dread, 
terror, restlessness, unquiet — with its absence of 
peace, joy, light, love. Can anything make this 
beautiful, peaceful world other than a hell, to 
that passionate man who has murdered? This 
is the ultimate peril of the passionate man, whose 
spirit has led him to the end of the way — and 
this is the relative peril of the man of anger, who 
will not heed the words of Christ. 

But advancing a step higher, ascending into the 
realm of the more spiritual, our Teacher says pas- 
sion is incompatible with true piety; these twain 



LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 77 

cannot dwell in the same house; anger in the 
heart makes a worthless religion. The absurdity 
of an angry worshiper is pictured in the two fol- 
lowing verses: God is love; hate cannot dwell 
in the presence of love. He who sits in a church 
service and bears malice and hate toward an- 
other, who has the unforgiving and bitter spirit, 
had better bide at home. Such an one is a " per- 
sona non grata " at the court of heaven. As well 
might the devil, because he has a good voice, join 
in the choiring of the angels before the throne of 
God as for an angry heart to sing praises in the 
temple — no acceptable music can issue from such 
inharmonious sources. The man is seeking to 
right with words that which he has wronged with 
deeds; seeking to correct by a fiction that which can 
only be righted by a fact. Such a man is false, un- 
true, a hypocrite ; he is but adding wrong to wrong, 
insult to injury. He is wronging first himself, next 
his brother, but most and always the God and 
Father of them both. Observe the viewpoint of 
the Master changes a little here, the obligation is 
laid not on the offended but on the offender — the 
text reads, " If thou rememberest that thy brother 
hath aught against thee." The right-minded 
man will go more than half the way to right the 
wrong, and to dwell in harmonious relations with 
his brother, for the sake of the common Father 



78 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

of them both. 

Then follows the counsel, light-clear, emphatic, 
explicit. Set right the heart, then practice your 
religion. When you come into the temple, with 
your offering to God, whether of goods, or words, 
or praise, or promise or what not — leave them 
there, do not offer them in vain, go thy way, " be 
reconciled to thy brother," then return and offer 
the fact to God, and be assured that His face will 
smile upon you, and His peace will possess your 
soul. The best worship to God is the justice 
done to the brother. Could anything more point- 
edly emphasize the truth that the religion which 
Jesus taught is a religion of fact and not a reli- 
gion of form? Be able to recite the deeds ac- 
ceptable to God, and forgetfulness of the creeds 
will not offend. Have the substance of religion 
and the forms will take care of themselves. 

What now thinkest thou of that simple law 
of murder, according to the rendering of Christ? 
Hast thou kept it? Canst thou keep it? Then 
blessed art thou of God. 

The Master then makes the application of 
the desirability of a peaceable heart for the com- 
mon affairs of a common life. Religion is life 
— life is religion. So common a thing, so whole- 
some a thing, so practical a thing is religion that 
it applies to and mingles with the everyday affairs 



LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 79 

of the everyday life. That which he teaches in 
the two following verses men call Ethics — it is 
merely a practical wisdom for the common life, 
and yet who can gainsay its excellence. 

The special term " brother " is now abandoned, 
its meaning being established and taken for 
granted. 

Living means differences, differences mean fric- 
tion, friction means irritation, heat, pain — be 
aware of this, be prepared for this. These are 
the accidents and incidents of life, unavoidable, 
certain. There are aggravating and irritating ex- 
periences every day, and when we least expect 
them. There are many men and many minds; 
differences of circumstances, estate, opinion, char- 
acter, practice, religion. Play the part of the wise 
man, says our Teacher, and have a peaceable 
heart, for a peaceable heart is the best prepara- 
tion for living in such a world. And yet, live as 
you will, live the best you know how, differences 
will arise, the best of men will find themselves 
opposed by an adversary, one hostile, unfriendly. 
Should you find yourself in this condition, the 
Master tells us to come to some agreement with 
him, as quickly as possible. It may be at a loss 
of some of your rights, your privileges, your com- 
fort, your money — but agree on the best terms 
possible. Is not this the most common sense and 



80 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

practical counsel that could be given? Does it 
not sound like some good legal advisor, seeking 
his clients' best interests? Is it not an evidence 
of our Lord's deep knowledge of men and the 
world? Is it not the counsel that the wise and 
prudent man will follow? Is it not in the long 
run, the safest course to pursue? 

" Agree with thine adversary," says the Master, 
lest thou be brought to utter ruin. Then with 
skilled hand he traces the course that so many 
men, unaware or unappreciative of his words, 
have followed to their destruction. " Lest the 
adversary deliver thee to the judge, the judge to 
the officer, and thou be cast into prison." Right 
may be with you, justice may be on your side, but 
the adversary may be stronger, more influential, 
more wealthy, more astute than thou, and such 
things have been done in this world as are here 
described. " In prison! " behold the ruin of your 
happiness! the happiness of your family, your 
friends, your associates. But still further, the ad- 
versary is not content; there is hate and bitterness 
in his heart — what he wants is your complete 
destruction, " Thou shalt by no means come out 
thence till thou have paid the last farthing." 
Counsel fees, costs of court, case gone against you, 
domestic expenses continuing, the little hoard you 
have saved exhausted; behold! ruin of your es- 



LIVE A PEACEABLE LIFE 81 

tate. How many a man can certify to the truth 
of this teaching, learned from the harsher, cruder 
teacher, Experience. If you did not love the ad- 
versary before, you do not now love him better 
because of all that has happened to you. The 
little breach which might have been bridged at 
the beginning has now grown to a chasm impos- 
sible to cross. You hate him, hate him, hate 
him — you hate his and those associated with him 
in this wicked business, you are bitter toward men, 
toward the world, toward the innocent and guilt- 
less, your heart is poisoned, your soul is on fire 
— your entire life has been ruined. This same 
road has many a man traveled to his complete 
destruction. Be thou wise; enter not upon it, 
" agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art 
with him in the way." 

In short, live the peaceable life, because the 
other, the life of the brawler, the easily angry, 
the passionate man, results in bad blood, bad man- 
ners, bad morals, bad religion and utter ruin. 



CHAPTER V 

LIVE A PURE LIFE 
Matt, v, 27-32 

THE visible is born of the invisible, the 
audible of the inaudible, the tangible of the 
intangible and the material of the immaterial. 
Everywhere in this wide world of phenomena, 
the seen, felt and heard is but the manifestation 
and offspring of that which is unseen, impalpable 
and in secret. We walk through a summer field, 
mantled with green and spangled with flowers of 
rainbow hue, vibrant with sound and palpitant 
with all forms of life. That symphony of sound, 
that galaxy of glory, that ever-changing pageant 
of beauty and of life, is altogether a product of 
forces, influences, principles — secret, silent and 
unseen. 

History with its reigns and dynasties, its courts 
and councils, its wars and conquests, its ever vary- 
ing and constantly changing scene of action, is 
the product of the invisible, the spiritual, the per- 
sonal. The deeds of men are but the outward 
symbols of their inward thoughts. 

What is true of the world at large is true of 
82 



LIVE A PURE LIFE 83 

the world in little; what is true of the mass is 
true of the man; therefore the wise men of old 
have written in constantly varying form the eter- 
nal truth, " Keep with all diligence thy heart, for 
out of it are the issues of life." 

And therefore our Teacher, in this passage, 
seeks to fix the thought and attention of his hear- 
ers on the transcendent importance of keeping the 
springs of their lives free from impurity and pol- 
lution. In few and simple words the Master at 
once exhibits to his learners the heights of purity 
to which they are to climb. He begins at the 
foot of the mountain, by calling their attention 
to the law given by Moses and familiar to them 
from the earliest years of their childhood, " Thou 
shalt not commit adultery." 

This law, like that which just precedes it, 
" Thou shalt not kill," belongs to the primer of 
legislation. It is a law fundamental, simple, ob- 
vious, universal in its form. We can say with 
assurance that it is a law of nature and a law of 
nations. And this we can affirm, in spite of all 
that has been said and written concerning the 
primitive peoples, and the aboriginal savages. 

Every nation that makes a claim to be a na- 
tion has some law regarding this matter on its 
statute books, and even those peoples who have 
not risen to the dignity of written laws have some 



84 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

form of a common and unwritten law against the 
practice of adultery. That is to say, every peo- 
ple has had some form or custom regulating the 
relations between the sexes, and in some degree 
recognizing the sanctity of family ties. And this 
we affirm so confidently, because even those sex- 
ual relations which seem to us to disregard this 
law are, according to the method of interpreta- 
tion of the peoples among whom they prevail, 
considered a keeping of the law; since the world's 
method of interpretation is that the law against 
adultery is one that is to be kept not internally 
and in the spirit, but externally and after the out- 
ward form. Therefore, while we may be speak- 
ing of a people or tribe like the Caribs, the Es- 
quimaux or the Aleutian Islanders, who practice 
polyandry, or of a people like the Fuegians, the 
native Australians and the Tasmanians, who 
practice polygyny, both polyandry and polygyny 
are observances of this law after the outer form; 
for, among all these peoples, while these rela- 
tions may be loose yet they are in some degree 
restricted, and while a civilized man might re- 
gard them as immoral we have no doubt that they 
consider themselves as a moral people and would 
repudiate the accusation that their marriage forms 
are not regulated by custom, which to them is 
law. 



LIVE A PURE LIFE 85 

It is plain that Mohammedanism and Mor- 
monism, which to us are palpable departures 
from this law, by the Mohammedans and Mor- 
mons themselves are regarded as a keeping of 
this law. Each of these peoples pretend to live 
according to a law concerning the sacredness of 
marriage, and each of these peoples would re- 
pudiate the idea that they are adulterers because 
they hold and practice customs in their sexual re- 
lations which a higher civilization cannot approve. 
In the Congo State in East Africa we are af- 
forded an illustration among certain tribes to 
what extent this outward keeping of the law may 
go, while the plain spirit of the law is violated. 
I recollect to have read that among certain tribes 
in the Congo region, the law against adultery is 
very stringent, being punished, if I rightly recall, 
by the death penalty; and yet it is not an uncom- 
mon thing among them for a host, as an act of 
courtesy, to loan his wife to a guest. Surely the 
people of the United States pretend to and pride 
themselves on the keeping of this law, and yet, 
when we consider how lightly the marriage bond 
is held and how easily it may be dissolved — - 
when we realize that we believe ourselves to have 
complied with the law when we have complied 
with the outer form of the law — the question 
presents itself to us whether we are in any fit posi- 



86 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

tion to find fault with the other peoples of the 
earth. 

Nay, the point we emphasize is this — the 
stress is laid on the spirit of the law rather than 
on the form of the law, and the Master calls our 
attention to the necessity of keeping of the law 
against adultery in the heart. 

Jesus, in contrast to the teaching of all the 
world that the law against adultery is kept or 
broken externally, affirms that this law is kept or 
broken internally. Jesus recognizes and ap- 
proves the olden law, but he fulfills this law as 
he did that against murder by giving us the 
higher, truer meaning of the law. 

Says he, we must go deeper than the surface of 
the matter; the law must be made to apply to the 
heart and the spirit. The " Do not do " is made 
to read, " Do not think," " Do not be." The ob- 
servation or violation of this law lies in the heart 
before it appears in the life. 

In his words, " Every one that looketh upon 
a woman for the purpose of lusting after her hath 
committed adultery with her already in his heart," 
we have set before us such an ideal and such a 
height of purity as the world had not dreamed 
of, such a height as seems almost unattainable. 
Yet who can deny the essential truth of the state- 
ment of the Master? Who can deny that what 



LIVE A PURE LIFE 87 

is reasonable and desirable is the keeping of the 
law of purity in the heart and in the spirit? 

In these striking words of Christ we are given 
still another lesson as to what the religion of 
Christ really means — again we are afforded an 
example of what he means when he says, " Ex- 
cept your righteousness shall exceed the righteous- 
ness of the scribes and Pharisees ye shall not enter 
into the Kingdom of Heaven." 

What God demands in His children is not 
form righteousness, not the outward and mechan- 
ical conformity of the steps and life to a given 
norm, not sacrifices, services, prayers and profes- 
sions of the outer man, but He requires FACT 
righteousness, a setting right of the sources of 
action, thinking, willing — keeping pure the heart. 
Thus we are made to see, quite contrary to our 
beliefs and practices ofttimes, that religion is the 
realest of all relations, and the least formal of 
all expressions of life. We are to worship Him 
in the spirit and in truth. 

Having thus set before his hearers such an 
ideal of purity, the Master now seeks to encour- 
age them and to stimulate them to effort by ex- 
hibiting to them the worth of the kind of purity 
he inculcates. He says in the twenty-ninth and 
thirtieth verses such purity is worth your utmost 
sacrifice and it will demand and necessitate your 



88 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

utmost sacrifice. This fact he illustrates to them 
under the figure of " the eye " and " the hand." 
In these words he teaches that that body which 
is dear to every man, must be sacrificed and counted 
of less value than the soul, which is dearer. 
These words contain figures and are not to be 
taken literally, for to interpret them literally is 
to violate the very principle he is trying to es- 
tablish. 

Christ is not teaching the inherency of evil in 
the body. He never held and never intimated 
this vagary of the Scholastic philosophy. But 
the violation of the law to which he is referring 
is peculiarly a temptation of the body, therefore 
the sacrifice of the body is a most apposite illus- 
tration of the principle he would establish. To 
take this figure literally, as did the Manicheans, 
the Essenes and the monks of the Middle Ages, 
is to do violence to the spiritual principle which 
the law teaches. To read the lesson thus is to 
be false to the principle, which is, Purify the 
springs of action, the heart, mind and will. To 
cut off the hand, pluck out the eye, injure the 
body, is futile, for it does not purify the heart. 
To so interpret his lesson is to be guilty of that 
practice which the Master condemns, the outward 
keeping of the law. The end of the law is not 
the destruction of the body, but the purification 



LIVE A PURE LIFE 89 

of it. 

In a word, the principle of religion here taught 
is that in living, the lower ought to be sacrificed 
to that which is higher. To paraphrase the text, 
it reads, " If your eye delights in anything, if your 
hand would fain do anything which is destructive 
of the heart and the spirit life within, deny the 
body and sacrifice the flesh for the sake of the 
spirit." 

The man is worth more than the body or than 
any part of it. The law which guides a wise man 
is, to be willing to sacrifice the lower to that which 
is higher; this law can be learned not by con- 
templation and meditation but by actually doing 
the thing required. Religion of this kind is an 
eminently practical religion. 

This is the principle that guides the true seeker 
after knowledge; the young man or woman who 
would make the attainment of knowledge the aim 
of his activities must be willing to plod along the 
weary, monotonous road which leads to learning. 
He must be willing to deny himself many a pleas- 
ure which is offered to him, to forego many a de- 
lightful day of idleness; he must be ready to work 
when his body would more willingly sleep, td 
tire his brain and try his nerve when the comforts 
of the flesh would beckon him to easy repose. In 
other words, to sacrifice his bodily comfort to his 



9 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

mental enrichment. This must the student of art 
do; he must be actuated by a similar spirit. He 
must count his art above his eating, or drinking 
or ease; he must have the spirit of willingness to 
lay these things on the altar of self-sacrifice for 
his art's sake. And of like kind must be the 
stuff of which is made the true seeker after the 
kingdom of heaven. This is the principle which 
actuated and which is illustrated in the story of 
the three Israelitish young men, Shadrach, 
Meshach and Abednego in the court of Nebuchad- 
nezzar, king of Babylon. For the sake of their 
religion, for the cause of their God, they were 
willing to keep themselves from the luxury, the 
ease and the temptations of the Babylonian court. 
For the sake of the higher good they were will- 
ing to forego the lower good, and so the blessing 
of their God rested upon them. 

This is the course which a wise and true man 
will pursue, as is intimated in the words, " It is 
profitable for thee." 

What the impure seeks, in yielding to his pas- 
sionate desires, is gratification, pleasure, happi- 
ness and, what seems to him in his blindness, 
good. What the impure gets is a hell of fire. 
An appetite is aroused within him that only fat- 
tens by what it feeds upon. A thirst is created 
that only increases the more he drinks. Having 



LIVE A PURE LIFE 91 

given himself over to sin he becomes the slave of 
sin, and the sense of liberty he knows no longer. 
How many a voluptuary, roue, panderer and 
slave of the flesh can and does testify to the truth 
of Christ's teaching, " It is profitable for thee " ! 

Here Christ's religion joins its voice with com- 
mon morality, and practical wisdom, and declares 
in no uncertain tone that the way to the good, the 
blessed, the free life, is along that road which 
sacrifices the lower to the higher, the flesh to the 
spirit. 

Having thus set forth in such striking lines the 
purity and its worth which the man of Christ is 
to seek, the Master now makes a practical ap- 
plication of the lesson he has taught. In a former 
section of this discourse he spoke of a principle 
necessary for the promotion and well-being of the 
life of society; there, he said, have a life free 
from hate, anger and enmity toward the brother 
— live the peaceable life. In this passage he 
gives a principle that will preserve society's chief 
bulwark and foundation; he makes a plea for the 
preservation of the home and the family. 
Christ's application of the teaching concerning 
heart-purity in this connection evidences anew the 
importance of the institution of the family and 
shows the gravity of the chief peril which 
threatens it. 



92 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

Marriage is a sacred relation; it is built on a 
moral conviction at the very beginning. It is an 
institution of society, but more than this it is an 
ordinance of God. The violation of the mar- 
riage relation is more than a mere breach of con- 
tract, like the dissolution of partnership or the 
failure to perform a stipulated piece of work; it 
is a transgression of the law of God, and it is 
from this point that Christ here views it. 

Says Milton, " Marriage is the highest form of 
society," and Fraser has written, " Marriage is 
the parent of civil society." x Says Thwing, 
" The conception of marriage as purely secular 
has been at the basis of our modern divorce leg- 
islation." " The institution of marriage rests 
upon a triangular base. It is founded upon the 
interests of the individual, upon the interest of 
the State, and upon divine ordinance. To weaken 
this foundation upon any side causes the struc- 
ture to totter." 

Marriage on the divine side is for the con- 
tinuance of the race, the protection and training 
of children and the development of the character 
of the husband and wife. That marriage is a 
divine institution the State bears witness when it 
appoints the clergy as its official to perform the 

1 See on this entire question, " The Family," by C. F. and 
C. F. B. Thwing, and " Divorce and Divorce Legislation," by 
Woolsey. 



LIVE A PURE LIFE 93 

sacred ceremony. 

But marriage also sustains a relation to the 
State; it is the best basis for social order; affords 
the best provision for the sick, the aged and the 
infirm; and the principles, useful to the State, of 
justice, courage and truth are best taught and best 
promoted in the family. Marriage also has a 
distinct relation to the individual; it offers the 
best school of development for the noblest per- 
sonality and is in itself the truest type of the di- 
vine government, as is evidenced by the frequency 
with which Jesus quotes the family relations in 
illustrating God's attitude toward His children. 

Thus, the preservation of that which is highest 
and best in the marriage relation is the preserva- 
tion of the home, the preservation of the family, 
the preservation of the State, and the preserva- 
tion of the highest and best within man and within 
the race. 

But nothing so militates against this sacred and 
helpful institution of marriage as impurity. This 
is what Christ teaches in this passage. Impurity 
violates the marriage bond in fact, and therefore 
it may be recognized as broken in form. It is 
not our desire to give statistics on a subject on 
which statistics are unavailable, and on which 
they are inefficient in detail. All that statistics 
do is to reveal the frequency with which the mar- 



94 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

riage bond is dissolved and the lightness with 
which so many hold the marriage tie. We be- 
lieve, however, that the root of most of the di- 
vorces which weaken and disfigure our society in 
this country, is impurity and the violation of this 
heart principle taught by Christ. 

When we take into account those divorces 
which are granted for open violations of the 
statute against adultery and those many more 
which are granted for " incompatibility " and for 
other fictitious reasons, but which in reality are 
granted for impurity, we have named the sad 
cause of a very bad consequence. Indeed, this 
subject of our loose marriage bonds and loose 
marriage laws is becoming one which gives pause 
to our complacency and moral conceit. 

We are ashamed and astonished to learn that 
in New England more divorces are granted an- 
nually, in proportion to the size of the popula- 
tion, than in any other country on the globe. The 
overthrow of the Roman family was the over- 
throw of Rome, and while we do not immediately 
fear any such sad consequence for our own loved 
land, yet it behooves sane and thinking men to 
realize the importance of the peril and the trans- 
cendent importance of the remedy which is sug- 
gested in the teaching of him who spake as never 
man spake. One thing this passage brings before 



LIVE A PURE LIFE 95 

our minds most clearly: We are sometimes in- 
clined to ask, What is worth while ? The answer 
given to that question in the words of our Mas- 
ter is, It is worth while to live for the family 
and for the home. Home is the cradle in which 
have been rocked the bravest, the best, the most 
worthy of earth's sons and daughters; home is 
the schoolroom in which man can learn those prin- 
ciples which best preserve and those practices 
which best promote the beautiful, the true and the 
good in all life; home is the altar at which re- 
spect, reverence, worship and religion are earliest 
and truliest inculcated; home is that quiet spot 
from which we set forth to brave the seas and 
storms of life; no more inspiring, restraining or 
comforting influence can accompany life's way- 
farer on life's way than the memory of a pure 
and pleasant home. Home is that port towards 
which all the faithful are steering; it is the type 
of heaven, the jewel of earth, the mountain of 
strength, the quiet valley of pleasure, the sweet- 
est word in our language, the most potent, benef- 
icent influence in our lives. 

No worthier, nobler work can a mortal aspire 
to than to be the builder of a true home — that 
place " where each member loves the other and 
where all love God "; and no home can be truly 
founded unless it rest on such a purity of heart 



96 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

and spirit as our Savior here seeks to inculcate. 

" This be the verse you grave for me : 
Here he lies where he longed to be ; 
Home is the sailor, home from the sea, 
And the hunter home from the hill." 



CHAPTER VI 

LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 

Matt, v, 33-37 

WHO has not heard a person express his 
surprise that an explicit command against 
lying is not contained in the two tables of the 
Mosaic law? 

As well might one exclaim because the solar 
spectrum does not appear in a ray of light, until 
it is broken into its component parts. The col- 
ors are the light. There is no ray of light with- 
out the seven colors, and there is no command- 
ment without the truth. 

The table of the ten words, reduced to its ulti- 
mate analysis, is but one commandment: Thou 
shalt be true; true to thy God, true to thy neigh- 
bor, and true to thyself. 

But there are always some literalists who ask 
for the explicit precept instead of the implicit 
principle; for these there are many commands 
against lying in Scripture, but none more far- 
reaching, none more authoritative, none more 
distinct and binding than the words spoken here 
by our Master, "Let your speech be, Yea, yea; 
97 



98 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

Nay, nay." 

Christ begins his exposition of this subject by 
adverting to the practice of the ancients of 
Israel. He calls their attention to the law re- 
corded in Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, 
and sums up the import of that law in the words, 
" Thou shalt not forswear thyself." 

The practice of oath taking among the an- 
cients was common and prevalent. Their oaths 
were so many and so varied, so lightly regarded 
that the people had lost sight of the original 
meaning of the practice. " Their number was 
endless; men swore by heaven, by the earth, by 
the sun, by the prophets, by the temple, by 
Jerusalem, by the altar, by the wood used for it, 
by the sacrifices, by the temple vessels, by their 
own heads." l " The garrulous, exaggerating, 
crafty Jew needed to be checked, rather than 
helped, in his untruthfulness, but the guardians 
of the purity of the law had invented endless 
oaths, with minute discriminations, and verbal 
shades and catches, which did not expressly name 
God, or the temple, or the altar, and these, the 
people might use, without scruple, mock oaths, 
harmless to themselves and of no binding force ! " 
So common had they become that their daily con- 
versation was interlarded with these adjurations 

1 " The Life of Christ," by Geikie. 



LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 99 

and asseverations. 

It is to this foolish custom and harmful prac- 
tice of the people that Jesus makes direct refer- 
ence when he calls their attention to the futility 
and emptiness of the practice — and makes plain 
to them that it is utter folly and unwisdom. 
" Thou shalt not swear," says Christ, " by the 
heaven, for it is the throne of God," etc. Such 
oaths, says the Master, lend neither weight nor 
strength nor certainty to your utterance, for all 
of these things are beyond your authority, influ- 
ence or control. What authority have you in 
the heavens — it is the throne of God. What 
rule have you in the earth — or what do you de- 
termine on His footstool? So much are you 
creatures of dependence and so subject are you 
to the fixed order of things, that you cannot of 
yourselves make one hair of your head white or 
black. Therefore, do not be foolish, and do not 
talk without meaning. To deck your talk with 
oaths is to reveal yourself a simpleton. 

But what did this practice of oath taking evi- 
dence? Was it not the clearest proof of the 
prevalence of untruth and lying? An honest 
man does not need to take an oath that what he 
says is true; and a liar only colors a deeper dye 
his lie, by his oath. The common practice 
among the Jews showed this to be a fact. Truth 



ioo THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

was made to be untruth. That which is simple 
is made to be double; a distinction is made where 
no difference exists. An untruth is an untruth, 
whether it is sworn to or merely affirmed. 

The distinction between perjury and false- 
hood, and the different degrees and binding qual- 
ities of oaths, simply declared that a man was 
permitted to speak falsely, without guilt, if he 
were not bound by an oath. In other words, 
lying is permissible, and the way for it is 
smoothed and made ready by the technicalities 
and connivance of the law. 

The first evil result is that darkness is made 
to be light, lying is not lying, if there be no oath. 
The second result of such fine distinctions is that 
lying under oath is not lying, except the oath be 
of a sufficiently sacred or terrifying an order. 
The total result is that lying is fostered and nur- 
tured, and truth is strangled by the meaningless 
distinction of the doctors of the law. 

Truth is slain by the letter of the law, and 
lying is hedged from attack by the protection of 
the law. Consequently there is a moral con- 
fusion within the man, and the entire life is weak- 
ened by the subtle poison. 

We are amused at these practices and distinc- 
tions of the Jews, ancient and modern, and at 
the ingenuity in lying prevalent in the Oriental 



LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 101 

nations of to-day. We contemn and condemn 
them, but the fair question arises, " Are we not 
guilty of a like practice with them, differing in 
form but akin in spirit? " 

Is there not a like condition of affairs among 
ourselves, to-day? Take the world of modern 
business operations, and while the great sub- 
structure is formed of truth and honesty else the 
business world could not endure, yet in detail 
there are many departures from the straight and 
narrow way. The law of common honesty and 
of simple truth does not apply as largely in busi- 
ness to-day and in this country as we might wish 
it did; and when it is applied, far too often it 
obtains because, "Honesty is the best policy"; 
applied because it is a policy rather than a prin- 
ciple, which, from the standpoint of Christ's re- 
ligion, means that it is not applied at all. 

The legal maxim of " caveat emptor," " let the 
buyer beware or be on his guard," is of far wider 
necessity of application than ever was intended 
when it was established in law, and with the 
subtlety and refinements of its application law- 
yers are only too familiar. 

Lies are told in calico and in wool, in leather 
and in groceries, in china and in wood every day 
of the business life. Many are the sellers who 
will give you less goods or poorer goods, if they 



102 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

can be sure to escape a lawsuit, or if they are in 
no peril of infringing the letter of the statute. 
The phrases, " I warrant " or " I guarantee," 
which formerly had a definite meaning, with cer- 
tain sellers to-day mean nothing more than a form 
of words to fill up the moment of conversation 
while the customer is deliberating a purchase. 

Take that great field of enterprise, modern 
" fake " advertisements. Just think if one could 
take the statements of the advertisements for 
truth, what an inestimable boon would have lighted 
upon this earth. If the goods set forth in these 
red-letter advertisements did what they claim to 
do, no short man but what would become tall — 
no tall man but what could be made short, no bald 
heads but what could be covered with a luxurious 
grov/th; deafness, blindness, dumbness, would 
have vanished; rheumatism, cancer, consumption 
and all the ills to which flesh is heir would have 
disappeared; every poor man would be made 
rich, every homely woman would become sud- 
denly beautiful, and the day of the millennium 
would be at hand. But what are the facts? No 
one who reads these personal advertisements ever 
dreams that they are literally true; no one who 
writes these personal advertisements ever imagines 
that the reader will think them to be true. The 
reader knows that he is reading a perversion, a 



LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 103 

misrepresentation, an artistic lie, and the only ques- 
tion in his mind is not how much of this is false, 
but in the very last analysis, what is the remotest 
possibility of a grain of truth in the entire glow- 
ing statement. 

One thing is surely evidenced from this realm 
of reflection, and that is that to-day, our " yea " 
is by no means "yea," nor our "nay," "nay"; 
and that the sacred principle of the truth is far 
too lightly regarded. It is true that these are 
what are termed " fake " advertisements; it is like- 
wise true that there is a movement on foot among 
honorable business men, to purge the pages of 
advertisement — and we rejoice to see this move- 
ment. 

But the very existence of such a movement is 
paramount evidence of its need and proof positive 
of the prevalence of lying advertisements. 

May the day speedily come, when newspaper 
and magazine editors shall clearly see that truth 
is not only the best policy, but the only abiding 
principle by which to test the advertisements they 
shall print, and the only sure foundation on which 
to build a confidence among their patrons and 
readers. 

Even the practice of taking an oath in court 
and the distinction between perjury and non-per- 
jury is a relic of barbarism, and evidences the 



io 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

world's need of the very counsel and command 
which the Master is here giving. 

Now turn, if you will, to that command which 
Christ gives, " Let your yea be yea and your nay, 
nay," and is not the common, wide-spread atti- 
tude of the world toward the truth tried and con- 
demned by this simple law? These words, in the 
largest interpretation, are not a command against 
perjury, nor against profanity, though each of 
these may be made to come under the law, but 
they are against untruth in the inward parts — in 
the mind and heart and spirit. The untrue 
spirit may reveal itself in the thought, may ex- 
press itself in the word, may manifest itself in the 
deed. You might correct the word, align the 
thought, make the deed to conform to a given 
standard, and yet have the spirit still untrue. As 
in the other instances of the new law previously 
adverted to, so here, the Master does not give a 
negative command but a positive principle — 
which runs, " Live the true life." 

The children of God ought to be true, because 
they are God's children and God is true. 

That God is true is everywhere evidenced, 
where there is any manifestation of God. With- 
out being true He cannot be God. God's truth is 
evidenced in the earth which He has created and 
which bears the impress of His being. He is true 



LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 105 

in the stars, true in the forces and processes of na- 
ture — the laws of science are possible only be- 
cause He is true. If God were not true there 
could be no science, no knowledge and no safety 
in living. As this is the manifestation of His be- 
ing in the world, so this is the revelation of His 
character in the Word. This is the Scripture 
testimony concerning God, " He is the same yes- 
terday, to-day and forever, with him is no vari- 
ableness, neither shadow of turning." He is 
spoken of as " God that cannot lie." And Plato 
has poetically expressed this fact in the words, 
" Truth is his body and light is his shadow." 
Those who bear His spiritual image and are His 
spiritual children, should be like Him in this, that 
they are true. 

Moreover, the children of God should speak 
the truth. Greenleaf, in his work on Evidence, 
quoting from Reid's " Inquiry into the Human 
Mind," shows, " That the Author of Nature, 
who intended that we should be social creatures, 
and that we should receive a great part of our 
knowledge from others, hath implanted two prin- 
ciples in our natures, that tally with each other." 2 
" The first of these principles is a propensity to 
speak the truth and to use the signs of language, 

2 Fid. " A Treatise on the Law of Evidence," by Simon 
Greenleaf, Part I: Chap. III. 



106 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

so as to convey our real sentiments." This may 
be termed the principle of veracity. 

In other words, truth is in accordance with our 
nature and lying is a doing violence to our na- 
tures. Children by nature speak the truth, and 
it is only after experience and under temptation 
that they turn to lying. We have by nature an 
instinct for the truth and though " there may be 
temptations to falsehood, which would be too 
strong for the natural principle of veracity, un- 
aided by principles of honor or virtue; yet where 
there is no such temptation we speak truth by 
instinct; and this instinct is the principle I have 
been explaining." 

Moreover, our author continues, " there is 
within us, implanted by the Supreme Being, a dis- 
position to confide in the veracity of others, and 
to believe what they tell us — this may be called 
the principle of credulity." Children, by nature, 
believe that what is told them is the truth — wit- 
ness with what readiness they receive and believe 
in the statements concerning Santa Claus, the fair- 
ies or any other impossible or imaginable beings. 

Without this principle of credulity — without 
this predisposition to belief in what is told to us, 
there could be no such thing as the progress of 
knowledge in the world, and our own individual 
experience would be the limit of our knowledge. 



LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 107 

Credulity, moreover, is a gift of nature and not 
the result of reasoning or experience; it is the 
strongest in childhood and weakens only through 
experience and the disappointing contact with a 
deceiving world. The above statements, while 
not verbatim, are yet substantially taken from Dr. 
Reid's remarks quoted in Greenleaf. 

This presents before our minds the iniquity of 
lying. Lying is one of the most subtle and potent 
evils which can assail human society. It is doing 
violence to our natural instincts; it is out of the 
order of things. It is the greater evil because of 
the difficulty of its detection. A thief can be 
traced, a murderer can be discovered, but the liar 
leaves no trail in the air. What has not a lie ac- 
complished? It has defamed characters, dis- 
rupted households, created wars, overthrown 
thrones, perverted religion and kindled the fires 
of hell. 

The lie is evil again, because of its evil associ- 
ations. The lie seldom travels singly. Says O. 
W. Holmes, " The devil hath many tools but a 
lie is a handle that will fit them all." It is the 
handmaid of every other kind of vice, the evil 
helper of every form of iniquity. The murderer 
and the thief are primarily liars. The principle 
of lying is back of murder, which is denying the 
truth that another has the same right to live as I 



108 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

have. The thief is in principle a liar, because he 
denies that to be another's which he hath taken. 

Lying is a great evil because of its propagating 
powers. Lies multiply like guinea pigs by the 
dozens. That man who thinks he can go free 
with one little lie, does not understand the nature 
of lying. The man who seeks to use the lie as 
his servant, is seldom free until himself becomes 
the slave. No man can become the master of the 
lie. 

Lying is a great evil to humanity because of 
its pervasiveness. There is no form of social re- 
lation into which it will not thrust its sneaking 
face; there is no relation too sacred for it to re- 
spect. There are the "white lies" of society; 
the " black lies " of commerce; the " gilt lies " of 
diplomatic relations; the " glorified lies " for the 
supposed sake of religion, illustrated most aptly 
by Job's comforters; the " party lies " as Addison 
terms them for political purposes; of these latter 
Addison remarks, that some persons seem to 
think that if the iniquity of the lie can be dis- 
tributed over the many it loses something of the 
personal sin, not realizing that a drop of ink can 
discolor and pollute a considerable body of pure 
water. 

The lie is a great evil because it deceives the 
liar. That definition of the lie, attributed to the 



LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE 109 

Sunday-school scholar and illustrating a too com- 
mon opinion of the use of the lie — " a lie is an 
abomination unto the Lord and a very present 
help in trouble" — is false, absolutely false. 
The lie is a broken reed upon which to lean at any 
time; it is a saving from present trouble by sign- 
ing a contract for a future trouble; it is paying a 
a present bill by giving a worthless note for 
a larger sum. And how foolish is the practice of 
parents to lead and invite their little children to 
flee to the false protection of a lie, under threat of 
punishment, for telling the truth! "Did you 
break that vase? If you did you shall be sorely 
punished for it. Now tell me the truth." The 
child moves naturally along the line of the least 
peril, and " did not break the vase," but fright- 
fully shatters the truth. 

Lying is an evil to be dreaded, because it makes 
a dupe and a slave of the liar. A liar must con- 
tinue to lie. Few habits are more easily ac- 
quired — none more hardly broken. Frequent 
lying leads to habitual lying; habitual lying, to un- 
conscious lying, until the liar arrives at that point 
where he cannot know the truth though he would; 
where he cannot distinguish between the concepts 
of his lying imagination and the recollections of 
his memory. Iago the subtle, artistic liar is a 
case in point. So frequently, so skillfully, so per- 



no THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

sistently did he falsely defame the character of 
Desdemona, that wise critics have reached the 
conclusion that at the end Iago himself believed 
those accusations to be true which at the outset he 
knew to be false. If Shakespeare painted this 
character thus, it only shows us that he understood 
the full peril and deceivableness of lying. 

But, to change abruptly from the darkness of 
lying to the white light of truth, the closing words 
of this passage set before us the sublime and 
simple freedom of the truth. There is surely 

MORE TRUTH THAN FALSEHOOD IN SOCIETY, ELSE 
THE WORLD COULD NOT EXIST. The words of 

Carlyle concerning the religion of Mahomet are 
here apposite. "A false man found a religion? 
Why, a false man cannot build a brick house ! If 
he do not know and follow truly the proper- 
ties of mortar, burnt clay and what else he works 
in, it is no house that he makes, but a rubbish 
heap — it will fall straightway." The fact that 
there are great business houses, large commercial 
enterprises, banking systems, and a world of busi- 
ness conducted on credit, says plainer than any 
words can — that men live and love the truth. 
Were it not that where the lie abounds the truth 
much more abounds, society itself would cease to 
exist. 

It is well for us to realize the peril of the lie 



LIVE A TRUTHFUL LIFE in 

and the traitorous spirit of that false friend who 
through misrepresentation of being helpful would 
gain entrance into the city of Man-Soul, for its 
betrayal and destruction. It is right for us, like- 
wise, to be aware that truth is mighty and must 
prevail. We must admire the honest man — the 
man of truth, whenever or wherever we find him. 
In the Life of T. H. Huxley, written by his 
son, there are no words that more truly grip the 
heart of the reader and kindle his admiration, no 
words which more tersely and truly picture in 
miniature the subject of the sketch, than those 
words taken from a letter written by Huxley to 
his son Leonard. " I know well that ninety-nine 
out of a hundred of my fellows would call me 
atheist, infidel, and all the other usual hard 
names." . . . " But I cannot help it, one thing 
people shall not call me with justice and that is — ■ 
a liar." Huxley loved the truth, lived the truth, 
worshiped the truth, and we believe that it was 
his devotion to the truth, coupled with his ab- 
horrence and utter dread of believing or teaching 
that which he did not know to be absolutely true, 
that kept his path on the plane of the material, 
and made him fearful of trusting himself, in 
those regions where the eye could not see, the 
ear could not hear and the sense could not test, 
the facts of knowledge. While we may not agree 



ii2 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

with him in his position, it is a poor soul that 
cannot admire his rich possession — and bow with 
respect and honor to a man who tried to be true. 
This simple, strong text, " Let your yea be yea 
and your nay, nay," is a call of the Master to all 
noble minds to cultivate the truth, such truth as 
is here indicated, truth of mind and spirit — truth 
in the inward parts. For on the truth rests a 
man's knowledge, his morality, his religion — his 
manhood, his usefulness to his fellows and his ac- 
ceptance with God. 

Blessed are the true in heart for they shall see 
and know the truth. 



CHAPTER VII 

LIVE A LARGE LIFE 
Matt, v, 38-42 

THERE are no " little things " in this earth 
which God has made. I sometimes wonder 
whether one, properly speaking, can refer to any- 
thing in this earth as a " little thing," speaking 
not as to mass, weight and appearance, but as to 
place, function and importance. In this vast ma- 
terial system there are the mountains, the seas, 
the oceans, the spheres, but there are also the 
drops of water, the insects and the microscopic 
creatures — and the student of the microscope in- 
forms us that it would almost seem as though 
the Creator had bestowed the greater thought and 
attention on those creatures which we term little 
than on those which we term great. 

The Constitution of Nature, scientifically con- 
sidered, is the constitution of " little things," for 
all that we see, know, or can know in the world of 
matter is the arrangement and rearrangement, the 
laws which govern and control molecules, which 
you or I cannot see, and atoms which it tires us 
to think about. If we would get an idea of the 
113 



1 1 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

minuteness of an atom, a recent illustration of 
Lord Kelvin will help us to do so. Said he, 
" Raise a drop of water to the size of the earth 
and raise an atom in the same proportion, and the 
atom will then be in some place between the size 
of a marble and a cricket ball." Along this same 
line of thought Professor Brashear of Lehigh 
University makes this comparison: " If you fill 
a tiny vessel of one centimeter cube with hydro- 
gen corpuscles, or electrons, you can place therein, 
in round numbers, five hundred and twenty-five 
octillions of them. If these corpuscles are al- 
lowed to run out of the vessel at the rate of one 
thousand a second it will require seventeen quin- 
tillions of years to empty it." And yet the Cre- 
ator has thought of the atom and the corpuscle 
and has given it its place, function and work. At 
all events there are no unimportant things in this 
earth; and the Creator has regard for the one as 
for the other. There are no " little things " in 
the economy of God. He regards kings and 
princes, potentates and great personages; but like- 
wise the poor, the sick, the aged, the infirm and 
the child are his. The Father has consideration 
of one as of the other. 

There are no little, unimportant things in that 
life which Jesus teaches us is worth living. His 
religion takes into account the great principles of 



LIVE A LARGE LIFE 115 

eternity, but also the small practices of our daily 
lives. The large decisions, the mountains of truth, 
receive his notice, but also the daily, humble, ap- 
parently insignificant deed, word and thought have 
our attention called to them. 

The spirit, to which our earnest thought is di- 
rected in his present words, is great, grand, 
kingly, Godlike — Live a large life, a life of 
love, forbearance, forgiveness and patience. The 
instances in which we are directed to do this are 
little, petty, insignificant, matters of expedience, 
prudence and mere good manners. Because this 
is the method of his teaching, is it not all the more 
true to the facts and experiences of life? Live a 
large life is the grand theme, among the common 
trivialities of the common day is the illustration 
of the theme. 

At the outset the Master calls our attention to 
that law which had been received from Moses, 
that law which had regulated the custom, practice 
and habit of the people for centuries, that law 
which was supposed to have the warrant of au- 
thority, and the endorsement of God Himself. It 
is recorded in Exodus XXI, 23-25, " And if mis- 
chief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, eye 
for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for 
foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, 
stripe for stripe." This law is known through all 



n6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

times and in all jurisprudence as the " lex 
talionis," the law of retaliation, recompense 
and revenge. And this is a law which is exceed- 
ingly congenial to human nature, because it ac- 
cords so perfectly with the impulses of nature. 
It is a law which springs unbidden to regulate the 
conduct of man. We find the root of it deeper 
than the nature of man, even in the nature of the 
brute. Snarl at a dog, make a threatening ges- 
ture at a dog, and the result is that he will show 
you his teeth, and stand ready to act upon the 
" lex talionis." You are, let us say, sitting in 
your study, reading or writing, suddenly from the 
nursery below issue sounds of conflict, blows are 
heard to fall, cries agitate the slumbering air, and 
the sound of weeping strikes upon your ear. 
With the instinct of natural judgeship you leave 
your quiet work and descend to " hear the cause." 
Is it not usually stated thus: " He did it to me 
and I did it to him "? Remarks by the court of 
a moral nature. " It don't make any difference; 
he had no right to hit me, and I only did to him 
just what he did to me." The case is concluded 
according to the wisdom or the unwisdom of the 
court, but the principle of " lex talionis " has been 
illustrated again for the millioneth time in the 
world of childhood. And as this is a primitive 
law, manifesting itself in the childhood of every 



LIVE A LARGE LIFE 117 

man, so has it ever been manifested in the child- 
hood of the race. 

I presume that in almost every nation illustra- 
tions of the " lex talionis " can be found, but I be- 
lieve that nowhere can we find a better, nor an 
earlier illustration of this law, than in that re- 
markable Code of Khammurabbi which has in re- 
cent years come to light. This is the oldest legal 
code in existence; it dates from 2300 B.C., a 
thousand years before Moses, and illustrates to 
us the character of a civilization contemporary 
with that of Abraham's day. In this code the 
" lex talionis " appears prominently. We give 
but a few of the more plain instances of it. The 
ideal of punishment is one that shall balance the 
crime, and be like the crime in kind and degree. 
" If one destroys the eye of a free-born man, his 
eye shall one destroy." 1 " If any one breaks the 
limb of a free-born man, his limb one shall 
break." " If a builder has built a house for 
some one and has not made his work firm, and if 
the house he built has fallen and has killed the 
owner of the house, that builder shall be put to 
death." If the house falls and kills the owner's 
son — the son of the builder is to be killed. If a 
slave is killed by the falling house, a slave must 

1 " The Code of Khammurabbi " — Historians' History of the 
World, Vol. I, p. 498. 



n8 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

be given to the owner of the house. If a doctor 
treats a slave, cutting him with a bronze lancet 
and the slave dies, the doctor must give the owner 
another slave. Thus runs the law of like for 
like, in the childhood of the race. 

This " lex talionis " was also a theory among 
the Greeks, not practiced perhaps in their laws, 
but appearing in their view of the divine govern- 
ment. They believed that in the order of Prov- 
idence the one who committed a sin against his 
brother should suffer as penalty that same wrong 
done by another to him. The one who stole 
should suffer through being stolen from. The 
man who lied should be deceived by lies. Inhu- 
manity would beget inhumanity. This latter is 
illustrated by the old story of the father who, 
when his son was maltreating him by dragging 
him by the hair of the head through the streets of 
the city, cried out, when they had reached the 
forum, " Drag me no further, for I only dragged 
my father to the forum." 

We have already seen that this " lex talionis " 
is one of the written laws of the Mosaic legisla- 
tion. Now while this law was to be enforced by 
the legally constituted authorities, and in this re- 
spect was better than the application of the law 
by the individual himself, because less liable to 
abuse, yet in this law the right of retaliation is 



LIVE A LARGE LIFE 119 

recognized and the spirit of retaliation is incul- 
cated. Therefore the literal man concludes, I 
have the law back of my desire, and I have a 
right TO my rights. It is against this principle, 
against this spirit, against this maxim, so com- 
monly heard — I have a right to my rights — 
that Jesus opposes a better principle, and illus- 
trates it by several instances and in four fields of 
application. The principle which he sets at the 
head of his discussion is do not oppose evil 
with evil. 

The first illustration which he offers where this 
principle will apply is in our contact with the pas- 
sionate man. Now it is very clear that a man has 
the right to life and his bodily safety — the pas- 
sionate man is the man who would rob you of this 
right, and would injure you in your body and per- 
son. How irritating, exasperating, provoking is 
such a man. This human pepper-box, this ani- 
mate volcano, this troublesome sore on the body 
of society! Who can avoid him? Who is not 
fated to meet him, sometime, somewhere? Now 
in the home, again in the street, to-day in our 
business transactions, to-morrow in the sanctity of 
the church. And wherever you meet him he is 
ever the same ; the man of unmodified conceit, of 
overbearing manner, of limitless selfishness, of 
irritating self-importance. Always he must be 



120 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

approached with slippered feet and with gentle 
words lest he burst out into a passion and take up 
arms against his nearest neighbor, and smite him 
on the cheek. The natural effect of this man's at- 
titude, of his temper and of his act, is to provoke 
the military and warlike spirit that lurks within 
every man. We have the desire to meet violence 
with violence, and to treat this form of human dis- 
temper homeopathically. 

This is the spirit, this the temptation, the 
Master would restrain. Says he, " Meet not such 
an one with an evil spirit, but oppose his evil, and 
ungoverned soul, with a restrained and governed 
spirit." 

Let a man, examine this rule and he must see 
that the Master is not counseling cowardice and a 
craven spirit. The man who has the spirit of 
Christ is the man of real courage; he is one who 
can endure, bear, take punishment; he is the man 
of self-mastery — far better, far braver, far 
nobler than the other. He is the man who illus- 
trates the wisest of the wise man's proverbs, 
" He that is slow to anger is better than the 
mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that 
taketh a city." 2 Such an one is the real com- 
mander of the situation, and must have the heart, 
courage and self-control of the brave man who 

2 Prov. xvi, 32. 



LIVE A LARGE LIFE 121 

would tame a wild beast. This is but a practical 
application of the irrefutable principle that, " A 
soft answer turneth away wrath; but grievous 
words stir up anger." As a principle this is true; 
it calls for wisdom in its application, like every 
other principle, and the wise man will realize that 
sometimes the way to peace is through war. 

A second right plainly recognized as belonging 
to man is his right to his own property. There 
be those who would deny this right, sometimes 
forcibly, but more often under color of law. It 
is the price which one pays for living in grega- 
rious relations, that one must meet this kind of 
man — the litigious man, the man who would de- 
prive you of your estate, or who seems to find 
delight in worrying and putting you to endless an- 
noyance in the keeping of that which is yours. 
This kind of a man is avaricious, inconsiderate, 
cruel, troublesome. It is painful to live near him. 
It is a supreme test of character to encounter him. 
He is the kind of human weed, which spreads 
broadcast the seeds of discontent, strife, bitter- 
ness, bad-feeling and hatred. Do you respect 
him? Do others respect him? Would you be 
like him? 

You see the evil manifested in him — there- 
fore avoid becoming like him. How? Jesus 
tells us in this fortieth verse. Remember that 



122 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

personality is worth more than things. Remem- 
ber that power is worth more than property, and 
good is worth more than " goods." The litigious 
man may get the " goods," but Jesus directs how 
you may get " the good." What are you seek- 
ing? What is your aim in life? Is it character, 
is it to be, rather than to possess? Then here is 
your opportunity for real enrichment. The 
Master's counsel in this fortieth verse is not only 
sound religion but it is sound prudence and com- 
mon sense, as experience hath so often verified, 
and as we shall briefly exhibit later. 

A third right of man, approved in reason and 
recognized in our national constitution, is the 
right to liberty. The right to be the arbiter of 
his own destiny, the right to be the determiner of 
his own goal. The right to go if he would go, 
and to refrain from going if he would not go. 
But one does not travel far in this world before 
he meets with the overbearing man. The man 
who has such a realization of his own rights, such 
a confidence in his own judgment and opinions, 
that he fails to recognize the right, judgment and 
opinion of any other mortal. This kind of a hu- 
man insect you meet most frequently in public and 
crowded places. He infests hotels, ferry-boats, 
cars and any place where the people gather to- 
gether, and wherever you find him you find him 



LIVE A LARGE LIFE 123 

asserting himself, elbowing his way through the 
crowd and seeking to compel the many to go the 
way of the one. Now it is perfectly possible and 
perfectly competent for you to accept his chal- 
lenge, to make a row, to insist on your rights, to 
urge your vote, to subscribe your veto to the un- 
reasonable will of such a man. It is competent, 
but, says the Master, it is not worth while so to 
do. Yield the technicality of your right, leave 
the worthless victory to the little man covered 
with the tin medals, the rewards of his brag- 
gadocio, and go your calm and peaceful way, 
conscious that you have gained a great battle over 
self, and aware of the approval of every great 
and good spirit in the universe. This is the kind 
of man of whom Oliver Wendell Holmes writes, 
in his "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table": 
" The qualities which tend to make me hate the 
man himself are such as I am so much disposed to 
pity, that, except under immediate aggravation, 
I feel kindly enough to the worst of them. It is 
such a sad thing to be born a sneaking fellow, so 
much worse than to inherit a hump-back or a 
couple of club-feet, that I sometimes feel as if we 
ought to love the crippled souls, if I may use this 
expression, with a certain tenderness which we 
need not waste on noble natures. One who is 
born with such a congenital incapacity that nothing 



i2 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

can make a gentleman of him is entitled, not to 
our wrath, but to our profoundest sympathy." 

The last class to which the Master refers, as 
persons who interfere with our rights and privi- 
leges, are those who tend to injure you in your 
kindness and charity. I like the way in which 
this is put — it is a man's right to give, it is a rich 
privilege to him to be charitable, nothing will 
make him a larger or happier man than the exer- 
cise of these graces. But how many become dis- 
couraged and disheartened in their charity and 
giving, by being continually accosted by the asker 
and continually defrauded by the borrower. 
There are leeches and lamprey eels in the animal 
world, there are parasites in the vegetable world, 
and there are those in the world of men and 
women who are professional frauds and blood- 
suckers, who never laboring yet desire to eat, who 
never giving yet desire to get, who live by their 
ignoble and graceless cheek, and who laugh at you 
and me for being easy marks for their false and 
pathetic appeals. Now, many a liberal soul and 
many a charitably minded man has allowed this 
class of person to rob him of that which is worth 
more than his golden trash, even of his generous 
heart. Many a man has said, " I have been 
1 taken in ' so often, deceived so frequently, that I 
am resolved never to give to any man or any 



LIVE A LARGE LIFE 125 

cause again." To such a hasty and unwise re- 
solve the Master here says, "Don't!" Keep 
your spirit of liberality; do not allow it to be de- 
stroyed; exercise that same breadth of judgment 
in your giving, that you do in your business, you 
cannot always make a profit on every transaction, 
bear with gracious fortitude these provoking 
losses, and never permit these grasping and thiev- 
ing parasites of society to steal from you the right 
to live the large, blessed and happy life of liber- 
ality. 

Now if we have carefully observed, while the 
Master has been talking, we have seen that the 
purpose of this principle, of not resisting evil with 
evil but of meeting the evil with good, is for the 
sake of the man practicing it. This is where the 
first returns are to be seen, in the self. It is not 
for the sake of the violent, nor the litigious, nor 
the overbearing man, that you are to observe this 
law, but to keep you from being like them. The 
Master is teaching his disciples, giving counsel to 
his children. Such a disposition, such a life, vic- 
torious in " little things," will make you a com- 
mander, a master, a hero, a truly great man. 
The man who can look beyond the immediate 
moment, past the present annoyance, over the 
head of the little fellow who stands insisting on 
his rights, is a truly great man, living a large life. 



126 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

But a second good result follows : nothing will 
more promote the kingdom of heaven than such 
living as is here indicated. What becomes of 
quarrels with only one party to fight? What of 
law-suits over coats, if the other party says, 
" Here, take my cloak also "? Given this spirit 
and the case is settled out of court. What hap- 
pens to the joy of victory of the overbearing man 
when the other says, " Why certainly, two miles if 
you choose " ? Why, all the joy and spice is gone 
for the mean spirit of the insistent man, and he 
is far more likely to yield a foot or two more of 
the sidewalk to the one whom he thinks is crowd- 
ing him. 

Observe : so great and pervasive is the religion 
of Jesus Christ that it leavens the trivialities of 
daily life. How greatly would the home be im- 
proved if there were less insistence on " my 
rights " and " thy rights." How would busi- 
ness be made more pleasant and more profit- 
able, if there were no litigious employers 
and no overbearing clerks! How the church 
would be beautified and glorified, if each in 
honor preferred the other. Observe: the man 
who has a spirit of this kind must find roses 
along life's path, the fruit of his gentle sow- 
ing. " Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he 
also reap." Fire feeds fire; hate breeds hate; 



LIVE A LARGE LIFE 127 

kindness begets kindness; and love reflects love. 
In the Rose Garden (Gulistan) by Sa'di we read 
this incident, " I was seated in a vessel, along 
with some persons of distinction, when a boat sunk 
astern of us and two brothers were drawn into 
the whirlpool. One of our gentlemen called to 
the pilot, saying,' Save those two drowning men 
and I will give you a hundred dinars ! ' The 
pilot went and rescued one of them, but the other 
perished. I observed, ' That man's time was 
come, therefore you were tardy in assisting him 
and alert in saving this other.' The pilot smiled 
and replied, ' What you say is the essence of in- 
evitable necessity; yet was my zeal more hearty 
in rescuing this one because on an occasion when 
I was tired in the desert he set me on a camel; 
whereas, when a boy, I had received a horse- 
whipping from that other.' God Almighty was 
all justice and equity: whoever labored unto good 
experienced good in himself; and he who toiled 
unto evil experienced evil." 

It is a fact hard for us to believe, that not he 
who has had injustice done him but he who does 
injustice is the most injured. 

Yet some one may say, " These principles are 
impossible and impracticable." How do you 
know? There has never been but One who has 
perfectly tried this way; he it is who counsels this 



128 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

way for us. Says Lessing, " The Christian re- 
ligion has been tried for eighteen centuries, and 
the religion of Christ remains to be tried." This 
is the religion of Christ. Try it! 



CHAPTER VIII 

LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 
Matt, v, 43-48 

IN the past four divisions of this great dis- 
course Jesus has been treating of a morality 
worth practicing. In this exhibition he has made 
plain to his hearers that the religion which he 
taught was truly ethical. 

So emphatically is morality insisted upon that, 
did we separate this part of the discourse from 
its context, one might conclude that religion is 
only morality. Yet we find that the morality 
which he prescribed is not a mechanical conform- 
ity to a fixed norm but the natural fruit of a right 
spirit — the emphasis being laid on the life which 
is within, rather than the life which is without, 
and thus marking for us the true relation of re- 
ligion to morality. 

The morality which he taught, while based on 
the profoundest principles, yet extends to the ver- 
iest commonplaces of life. In these four divi- 
sions referred to Jesus had made plain that we 
ought to live a peaceable life — free from heart- 
hate ; we ought to live a pure life — free from 
129 



130 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

heart-lust; we ought to live a true life — in word 
and act and thought ; and we ought to live a large 
life — above the insistent application of " my 
rights." 

Thus inductively has the Master led us up to 
the heart of morality and the spirit of right living, 
which is love. 

The stage in the discourse we have now reached 
is, therefore, the summing up of that which has 
gone before and the introduction to that right- 
eousness worth attaining of which he is about to 
speak. 

In other words, love is the central point in his 
discourse, as it should be the central point in life; 
it is pivotal in one as in the other; it is that 
vital, focal point where morality meets and merges 
into religion. Love is that great law of the 
Scriptures, for the determination of a man's right 
relation to his fellows and a man's right relation 
to his God. Given such a love in the life as is 
here pictured, and the man stands in the proper 
relation to God and to his brethren. Love, there- 
fore, is the spring of all true morality and love is 
the only foundation of perfect righteousness. In 
short, it is the presence, power and guidance of 
love that makes the perfect man. 

The perfect life, which is now to be the theme 
of the Master's teaching, is presented to his 



LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 131 

hearers in striking contrast to the imperfect life, 
which is the life of the world. We find that 
imperfect life evidenced and authorized in the im- 
perfect law of Moses. In Deuteronomy the 
twenty-third chapter and the sixth and seventh 
verses we read, " Thou shalt not seek their (the 
Moabite's and Ammonite's) peace nor their good, 
all thy days forever." " Thou shalt not abhor 
an Edomite, for he is thy brother." 

In other words, " Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
and hate thine enemy." This was the law of the 
Jews, and this law exhibits the practice of the 
Jews in their relations to the various peoples with 
whom they came into contact. In this particular 
respect the Jews were not superior to the other 
nations of antiquity — for that which was prac- 
ticed by the Jews in their relations was likewise 
practiced by the other nations in their relations 
to the Jews. 

This loyalty to friends and hostility to enemies 
characterizes, in a general way, the law of love 
as it was written before the coming of Christ. 

Among the ancients the bonds of friendship 
were very strong, and the principle of loyalty to 
tribe, clan or nation was to a degree binding. 
That man was an outcast and an unworthy citi- 
zen, who played the traitor to a brother, a friend 
or to one to whom he had given the tokens of 



132 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

friendship, illustrated in the ancient practice of 
11 eating salt " with a man. But that man was 
likewise a traitor to family, tribe or nation, who 
showed kindness, or did good, to another, the ac- 
knowledged enemy of tribe or family. The cus- 
tom of holding the family responsible for the 
crime of the individual, of demanding reparation 
from the family for the wrong doing of one of its 
members; and likewise the duty of taking 
vengeance and of seeking reparation for a wrong 
done to any member of the tribe or family illus- 
trates both the solidarity of the family and tribal 
life, and the prevalence of the law that " Thou 
shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy." 

This law, so potent and so prevalent in the 
early days, still survives among all nations at the 
present day in the form of the commonly known 
legal fiction, that when a nation is at war with an- 
other nation, every member of the nation is an 
enemy of that other nation and vice versa. 

The word " barbarian," with its familiar mean- 
ing of uncivilized or half savage, is a positive 
though small relic of the narrow spirit of national- 
ism, and the limited spirit of charity of an earlier 
day. Among the Greeks " a barbarian " meant 
one who was not a Greek, among the Romans it 
meant one who was not a Roman, among the Ital- 
ians it referred to all who were not Italians. As 



LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 133 

one has said, " It is remarkable that we always 
call a rival civilization savage; the Chinese call us 
barbarians, and we call them barbarians." 
" The Middle Ages were a rival civilization, 
based upon moral science, to ours based upon 
physical science. Most modern historians have 
abused this great civilization for being barbar- 
ous." * 

This is not literally true at the present day, and 
the reason for the change we shall consider later, 
but it was true with the utmost literalism in a 
former day. 

In one word, while the old morality taught that 
it was a virtue to be a good lover, it taught with 
equal insistence and authority, that it was an equal 
virtue to be a " good hater." 

This law of loving one's friends and hating the 
enemy likewise represented the spirit of the best 
religion of a former day. David was a char- 
acter, tender, gentle, sympathetic and spiritual, 
loyal and true to his friends — but hating his 
enemies with a like zeal, devotion and singleness 
of purpose. Some of the imprecatory Psalms il- 
lustrate to a nicety, with what an ideal compli- 
ance David observed the law of Moses, " Thou 
shalt hate thine enemy." This spirit of hatred to 

1 " Bookman's Biography of Thomas Carlyle," by G. K. Ches- 
terton, J. E. Hodder Williams. 



i 3 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

the enemy has been strongly characteristic of all 
religious differences in all times of history. The 
Spanish Inquisition was simply a systematized 
propaganda for punishing and exterminating those 
who were regarded as the enemies of the church, 
and therefore the enemies of mankind. In lib- 
eral and enlightened England during the reigns 
of James and Charles, when religious loyalty was 
so devoted and religious hostility so bitter, the ad- 
herent of either religious party, which at that time 
frequently coincided with the political party, was 
the bitter enemy of the other party, so that it 
came to pass that house was divided against 
house, husband against wife, children against their 
parents. 

Now the way of life prescribed and produced 
by this law that " hath been written of old," can 
surely be called an imperfect way, because it re- 
sulted in such imperfect living. We believe that 
we have reached that point in civilization when we 
can surely affirm that a state of war is a state of 
society to be deprecated and deplored. But the 
observance of this old law resulted in a continual 
state of war of larger or lesser proportions. In 
England the Hundred Years' War, and the Thirty 
Years' War were the fruit of this law, and there 
has never been a religious war which was not the 
product of " loving our friends and hating our 



LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 135 

enemies." This is the life, and this is the law 
which fosters such a life, that Jesus categorically 
rebukes, condemns and repeals. " But I say unto 
you," are the words with which he introduces the 
new law of perfection. And the law which the 
Master enacts and which ever is associated with 
his divine life and his divine works, is the great 
law of love. 

The law of love here referred to is a law to 
the reason and the will of a free moral agent. 
The love spoken of is not a matter of sentiment 
— it does not refer to instinctive affection, to im- 
pulsive and natural devotion, as the love of the 
parent for the child. Such a law, commanding 
a son to love his mother, in the sense of having a 
natural affection and right sentiment for her, 
would be a superfluity and an absurdity. Such a 
love is already furnished by nature and so there is 
no need for such a command. This would be a 
superfluous law, as much as the command, " Thou 
shalt eat or thou shalt breathe." Again, instinc- 
tive affection and natural devotion is not the object 
of this law because to command such a thing would 
be an impossibility. To command the operation of 
instinctive, impulsive, natural functions and senti- 
ments is beyond the pale of command, because it 
is beyond the pale of volition. Jesus is not here 
commanding either the absurd or the impossible. 



136 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

In this very passage the Master illustrates to us 
what he here means by the " Thou shalt love thine 
enemy." 

At this point we eschew theories, speculations 
and philosophical abstractions to confine our at- 
tention to what the Master concretely shows the 
law of love to be. The words in which the law 
are couched is, " Love your enemies." This is 
simply Christ's striking, forceful way of putting 
the law. The point to be emphasized in the new 
law of love must be contrasted with the point 
avoided in the old law of love and therefore the 
stress is laid on "the enemies"; these being 
the particular objects of the love of the will be- 
cause they are not the natural objects of the love 
of the affection. He then proceeds to show the 
content and method of application of this law. 

Such love as he here inculcates, will include, 
first, maintaining a right attitude of action to- 
ward them — expressing itself in good deeds. 
" Do good to them that hate you " is the way 
this is expressed in the parallel passage in Luke's 
Gospel. 

Let us suppose that a person has done you an 
injury from which you have suffered in body, mind 
or estate; now the opportunity arrives when you 
have the chance to express yourself toward the 
enemy, when, in other words, to use the common 



LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 137 

phrase, you can " get even." The Master here 
says " get even " by doing good to him who hath 
done evil to you. If we should paraphrase and 
expand the law it might read something as fol- 
lows: It is a man's highest duty not to do any- 
thing to interfere with another working out his 
own highest destiny. It is further a man's high- 
est duty to do everything he can to help another 
toward the fulfillment of his highest destiny. 
What that other man has done to you has nothing 
to do with your obligation or obedience to this 
law. 

The law does not mean that you are to have a 
natural affection for him, it does not mean that 
you are to " divinely dote " upon him, but it does 
mean that you are to deal with him justly, even 
according to the law of love. Such a practical 
love as that is perfectly feasible — if we will, and 
the matter rests within the power of the will; 
therefore its obedience is commanded. 

Secondly, the law of love says, as recorded in 
Luke, that we are to " bless them that curse you." 
That is, we are to keep the heart from assuming 
a hostile attitude toward another. This is a step 
in advance, perhaps a more difficult field of appli- 
cation of the law. One thing we know is this, 
that the attitude of a man's heart and mind largely 
influences the attitude of his life. In other words, 



1 38 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

we are very much what we think ourselves to be, 
and things are very much what we think them to 
be. 

We are now in the very familiar region, so 
prominently before us at the present day, of the 
influence of the mental over the material world. 
While we would not go into the intricacies of the 
subject, yet there is broad truth in the underlying 
principles. Choose a thing and you will like it; 
refuse a thing and you will loathe it; set yourself 
adversely toward a person and you will dislike 
him; set yourself favorably toward a person and 
you will find him more tolerable. The Master 
here directs us to have that benign, favorable, 
happy attitude toward even our enemies, as would 
be indicated in the phrase " bless them." And 
such an attitude is practicable and lies within the 
power of the will. This was the attitude of heart 
that David had against his declared enemy Shimei, 
who stood cursing the king as the old man went 
forth from Jerusalem, a fugitive. David's ad- 
herents bade him to act according to the old law 
and to permit them to cross over and take off 
Shimei's head; but David's spirit was humble that 
day, he was traveling near to God, and so he did 
according to the new law of love — there was no 
rancor in his heart, no bitterness in his spirit; he 
would not harm his enemy when he could, and he 



LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 139 

returned blessing for cursing. David towered 
above himself that day, majestic, strong, Christ- 
like; this law of love molds perfect men. 

But, still further, Jesus illustrates what it 
means practically to love your enemies, he ad- 
vances a step more — we must maintain the right 
attitude of spirit toward them. " Pray for them 
that despitefully use you." This means to do 
justice to your enemy before the Throne of Grace; 
it means not only not to hinder him, not to harm 
him, but to help him as you best can. And this 
too lies within the power of the man who will. 
Thus men have done and thus men can do. 
Jesus prayed for his persecutors, while they were 
nailing him to the cross, " Father, forgive them 
for they know not what they do." Thus have 
many martyrs since that time prayed for those 
who were despitefully using them. This was the 
attitude of the spirit of Louis XVI and his Queen, 
Marie Antoinette, when they were imprisoned, in- 
sulted, maltreated, persecuted by the mad mob of 
French fanatics, to the eternal glory of these royal 
spirits and to the eternal shame of the French na- 
tion. These were the noble words, revealing the 
nobler spirit of the suffering queen, " Every sus- 
picion that either the King or myself feel the least 
resentment for what happened must be avoided; 
it is not the people who are guilty, and even if it 



1 4 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

were they would always obtain pardon and forget- 
fulness of their errors from us." 2 This, there- 
fore, is the perfect law of the perfect life as illus- 
trated in the concrete teachings of the Christ. 

The perfect life is further impressed upon our 
minds by a consideration of its motive and pat- 
tern. We are to observe this perfect law that we 
may be the sons of our Father which is in heaven. 

In other words, this is the echo of the psalm- 
ist's estimate of man as " Little less than divine " 
and the forerunner of the apostle John's estimate 
of man, " Now are we the sons of God." Man 
is being trained for companionship with God. 
There can be no true companionship, friendship or 
fellowship where the persons have not something 
in common. For a complete fellowship the art- 
ist seeks the man of artistic taste and apprecia- 
tion; the musician finds a responsive chord in those 
who love music; the litterateur finds companion- 
ship in the lover of books; the man of morals 
and religion is at home among the moral and re- 
ligious. So God is training His children in His 
way, after His law, that they may be able to en- 
joy Him forever. Christ here teaches us that 
God's way of dealing with mankind, even with 
those who are hostile and hateful, is the way of 

2 " Marie Antoinette and the Downfall of Royalty," Imbert De 
Saint Amand, p. 222. 



LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 141 

love. His goodness is shown to all, in food and 
raiment, and breath and life, and all good things. 
The man who curses God receives from God the 
breath with which he curses, and Judas is in the 
college of the apostles. Suppose that God did 
the way of the world; suppose He made the lim- 
ited law of love His law, loving His friends and 
hating His enemies. Some think that thus He 
ought to do — some that thus He does. There 
are those that marvel that the blasphemer is not 
struck dead in the midst of his blasphemies; Job's 
counselors considered that it was only the impious 
and the wicked that were afflicted. 

There are those to-day who stand ever ready to 
account for a catastrophe or a cataclysm of nature 
as a judgment of God on a wicked city, or a 
wicked country. And James and John were 
ready to call down the fire of heaven upon Sama- 
ria because it would not listen to the words of the 
Christ. But the Master says to one and all of 
these classes, to James and John, to Job's coun- 
selors, and all pious accusers, " Ye know not of 
what manner of spirit ye are of." God's law of 
love is the law of love Christ came to propound 
and to prove. Had God so done, did God so do, 
after the manner of the law of love as promul- 
gated and practiced by men, who would merit His 
kindness? Who would be alive to-day? Who 



1 42 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

then would be saved? Nay, it is his divine ob- 
servance of the divine law — it is because He is 
love that He is dear to us. This it is that hath 
won our hearts; this it is that hath broken our 
wills; this it is that hath humbled our pride, this it 
is that hath begotten our love for Him. And it is 
this law of Love that shall finally draw all men 
unto Him. 

But suppose that we still act according to the 
world's law of love — then the Master shows us 
what will be the consequence. Says Jesus, " Who 
does as the world, is as the world." Can that 
man who does as the publicans, as the nations, as 
most people do, be any better than these? Then 
how can the world be made better? How can 
man himself become better? How can we call 
ourselves the sons of God, if we do only as the 
sons of the world? 

The end and purpose of the perfect law of love 
is exhibited finally by the command to live the 
perfect life. In this high end we have revealed 
an estimate of man's dignity and man's divinity. 
No one ever charges a cat with being immoral, be- 
cause the cat is without the pale of morals and the 
moral law does not apply to the cat. You would 
not demand of a child knowledge of solid geom- 
etry, nor would you expect an Andaman Is- 
lander to be familiar with the technique of music. 



LIVE THE PERFECT LIFE 143 

Little is required of these because they are 
capable of little. But to whom much is given of 
him much is demanded; and conversely when it 
comes to the commands of God which are always 
reasonable, when high demands are made of man 
it evidences his capability of high attainments. 
As ability entails responsibility, so responsibility 
evidences ability. 

In this high end intended by the perfect law of 
love we have the promise of the great possibility 
within man. The law, and the pattern, and the 
command seem to be revolutionary, ultra, impos- 
sible. But it is not impossible, for God never 
asks the impossible. It is difficult, for God ever 
asks the difficult. It is not impossible for God 
lends His help for its fulfillment; as we shall see 
in a later chapter, this is the realm where the in- 
junction, " Seek, ask, knock," obtains. It is not 
impossible, for men have made it, and men are 
making it real in their actual life to-day. This 
law is the very heart of charities and philan- 
thropies; it is the gentle cause of the humanities 
in so inhuman an art as war; it is the root from 
which hath grown the idea of brotherhood; it is 
the bond which is drawing together the nations of 
the earth; it is the cure which is working the 
abolition of feuds. 

Moreover, in these words of Christ, " Ye shall 



i 4 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

be perfect even as," etc., we have revealed a 
prophecy concerning the destiny of man. While 
one has rightly said, that " truth in the sense of 
the absolute justice is a thing for which fools look 
in history and wise men in the Day of Judgment," 
yet in these words of promise of our Master we 
have not the stuff for the making of dreams but 
the solid foundation of principle on which we can 
build the certain expectation of the coming of a 
day when the law of love having wrought its per- 
fecting work, man shall show justice to man, in 
his right attitude of deed, heart and spirit. We 
have here the vision of a place and of a time when 
the law of love shall be the law of that land. In 
these hopeful words of the Master we hear 
sounded the keynote of that harmonious anthem, 
which shall usher in the dawn of the second crea- 
tion, as the singing of the morning stars together 
and the shouting of the sons of God made music 
at the creation of the heavens and the earth. 
The end therefore of this royal law is man's per- 
fection, completeness and entirety. The power 
is that Spirit of peace, of truth and of love that 
worketh in us to will and to do of His good pleas- 
ure. 



CHAPTER IX 

LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 
Matt, vi, 1-4. 

WE have now finished that section of the 
Master's curriculum wherein he has taught 
his learners concerning that morality worth prac- 
ticing. In the foregoing words he has laid the 
foundations of a sound society, and erected the 
fingerposts pointing the way to a happy and 
strong manhood. His regard up to this moment 
has been chiefly concerning our relations to our 
fellow men. He has in a broad way pointed out 
how it is possible for a man to dwell in right 
relations to his neighbor. Now a step in advance 
is taken — the subject progresses to a higher 
level; the leading idea underlying each of the 
three following sections is a man's relation to 
" the Father." The Father is brought to the 
fore, and mentioned prominently in each of these 
sections. While not leaving the realm of a 
higher morality, yet our study now advances to 
that branch of human thought which men com- 
monly denominate religion, and our teacher's pur- 
pose here is to show especially how a man may live 
145 



i 4 6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

in a right relation to God. 

The first great thought presented under this 
subject is, a man must live a charitable life. The 
common view of giving differs from the view pre- 
sented in these words of the Master. I believe 
we are not far astray when we say that men com- 
monly regard giving as a work of grace and not 
of debt; a work of supererogation, something ex- 
tra, something by way of addition, something 
which may be practiced or not according to the 
will of the man himself — something not a neces- 
sity of a spiritual religion. 

And this view, it seems to me, is evidenced by 
the world's approach of the giver. Cautiously, 
gently, apologetically, with slippered-feet and 
with silver tongue let a man approach that one 
from whom he would solicit a contribution for 
any charitable or religious work. This is a sub- 
ject from which the phrase " you ought " must be 
excluded. A man's pocket-book and property are 
his own to do with as he pleases, and to refuse to 
give to anything is the privilege of the world. 
This is further evidenced by the world's opinion 
of the giver. As a people we regard giving as 
something worthy of extra praise and credit. A 
man may be moral and escape the notice of the 
papers, he may be religious and escape publicity, 
he may be honest and it will not be widely noticed 



LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 147 

until we read his obituary, but let him be largely- 
charitable and his name will be heralded in every 
penny sheet. Why is this, unless the charitable 
man be an exception, or unless charity be some- 
thing of unusual merit? To say of a woman she 
is pure is tantamount to an insult; to say she is 
honest is a doubtful compliment; to say of her 
she is generous and charitable is to say that which 
does not displease her and which gratifies her 
friends. A man must be honest; he must be just 
to have the respect of his fellows; he ought to be 
religious, but he may be charitable. 

Nor can we deny that ordinarily the giver has 
a good opinion of himself. That spirit which 
actuated the Pharisee when he stood up in the 
temple to pray, and which led him to say, " I give 
tithes of all I possess," is by no means absent 
from our common estimate of ourselves. 

These things are so, we believe, because the 
practice of charity and giving has not been as- 
signed its true and rightful position in the great 
obligations of our lives. The true view of giv- 
ing is brought before our minds in the words of 
our Master spoken to his disciples on the Mount, 
and set at the head of this chapter. Giving is a 
necessity of right living. That man does not 
rightly live who does not truly give. This is 
shown by the opening words of our Lord. 



148 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

" Take heed that ye do not your righteousness be- 
fore men, to be seen of them," are the words with 
which he begins this part of his discourse. 
Righteousness — or man's right relation to his 
God, is the general theme. " Therefore when 
thou doest thine alms," is the particular inference 
from the general theme. Almsgiving, charity, 
therefore, is a first element of acceptable right- 
eousness, and without giving a man cannot be 
pleasing to his God. In one brief word — there 
are three ways in which a man may be acceptable 
to God — these are adduced and elaborated suc- 
cessively. 

Charity is the first, prayer is the second and self- 
denial is the third. These forms of elemental 
righteousness the Pharisee himself recognized, 
for he says, " I give," " I pray," and " I fast," 
and no man can even pretend to live in a right re- 
lation to his heavenly Father unless he observes 
these three principles of a right life. 

A moment's thought will reveal to a true man 
why he ought to give. While men differ in rank, 
station and talent; while they occupy unequal 
levels, and enjoy unequal privileges; yet it is true 
that of one blood made He all the nations of the 
earth, and men have a common lot and live a com- 
mon life. The great law of love, which the 
Master has given as the norm for the guidance of 



LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 149 

the conduct of all God's family, says to man in no 
unmistakable terms, that he shall share his 
strength, his time, his talent, his food, his riches, 
with that other less gifted and more needy than 
himself. How more plainly could this truth be 
expressed than it is in the words of the Apostle of 
Love in his letter to " his little children " in I 
John iii, 17, " But whoso hath this world's good, 
and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up 
his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth 
the love of God in him? " " My little children, 
let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in 
deed and in truth." If we love God, we shall 
love those who are God's children, and if we love 
not God's children better than we love our goods 
we are none of His. 

Christ's first teaching to his learners is that they 
are to be of use and service in this world, and how 
can a man be of real use save as he giveth of him- 
self for the service of the world? We are to be 
God-like; how can a man be more God-like than 
to resemble in liberality and charity the Giver of 
every good gift and of every perfect giving? 
That man who pretends to be religious, but who 
does not give, has not truly fulfilled the first prin- 
ciple of the simplest religious life. I come more 
and more to believe that the pocket-book is a 
trustworthy test of the reality and genuineness of 



i 5 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

a man's religion. It is easy to say, " I believe 
that Jesus is the Savior of the world " ; to declare 
that the Gospel ought to be preached to every 
creature; to magnify and laud the transforming 
and enlightening power of the Word. But the 
practical question is, How much do you believe it? 
Do you believe it to the extent of parting with 
dollars and cents for the support of the Gospel, 
the spread of the Word, the feeding and giving to 
drink to the needy ones of earth? — then you be- 
lieve it in deed and in truth. Do you believe it 
only to the giving of pious utterances and Phari- 
saic speeches, then you believe neither in deed nor 
in truth. The man who gave two cents to the 
last mission collection does not believe very sin- 
cerely in missions, howsoever much he may prate 
about them. 

Giving has not the place in our lives that it 
ought to have according to the teaching of our 
Lord. It does not occupy the place in our busi- 
ness budget, in our estimates of expenses, that it 
was intended to occupy. If God's people gave in 
anything like a proportionate ratio to their privi- 
lege and to their ability, the church to-day would 
be spared much of that humiliation of appeal to 
which she is subjected, and would no longer be re- 
garded as a " begging institution." And ob- 
serve here, an appeal does not make an obli- 



LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 151 

gation; it merely exhibits it — the obligation ex- 
ists before the appeal is made. Giving is an obli- 
gation which no follower of the religion of Christ 
will want to escape. Giving is one of the great- 
est means of Christian grace. I am persuaded 
that that man who gives freely, gives gladly, gives 
as an act of worship to God, and as a God-like 
privilege which he may exercise in helpfulness to- 
wards God's children, is one to whom the heart 
of God goes out, upon whom the love and peace 
of God abideth, one whose charity covers a multi- 
tude of sins. . The man who does not give, does 
not love God. 

How can a man ever be like God and not give, 
for God is the great, bounteous, willing Giver. 
What are we that He has not made us? What 
have we that He has not given to us? Who lives 
in this world lives in a house which God hath 
given to him; daily we sit at His table and par- 
take of that abundance which He hath supplied; 
our eyes are feasted upon the beauties of field and 
sky and sea; our minds rejoice in the powers with 
which He hath equipped us; our hearts sing and 
our lives laugh because He in his giving hath 
made it possible. And what have we to hope for 
in the ages to come but the bounty of His benefi- 
cence and the eternal riches of His love? 

We hear much mention made in Scripture — 



1 52 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

especially in the Old Testament — of "God's 
poor," and there are some who are wont to look 
with a kind of calm complacency and a con- 
descending compassion on " God's poor," as 
though they were a class by themselves, and with 
whom we had no vital connection. But who are 
God's poor? Let us pause a moment to inquire. 
In the experience of my imagination, a while ago 
I encountered two of those commonly called 
" God's poor," sitting at the corner of Twenty- 
third Street and Sixth Avenue, New York. I had 
seen these two old men there many times, I be- 
came interested in them, gradually got acquainted 
with them, and was eventually invited to visit the 
rooms where they lodged. It was at the close 
of a summer's day that I walked home with them 
to their unattractive quarters on the East Side. 
The evening was close and hot and their surround- 
ings seemed anything but inviting, yet I was in- 
terested in the conversation, for they had had a 
particularly successful day, and so the externali- 
ties of their life were more bearable to me than 
they might otherwise have been. These men 
were beggars, not by choice but by necessity; they 
had lived past their time, physical debility and the 
taking away of those upon whom they might have 
been naturally dependent compelled them to sit 
with extended hand waiting the charity of those 



LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 153 

whose hearts moved them to give. They told me 
much of their lives that would be irrelevant here, 
but to-night they were glad of heart for one had 
made two dollars and the other something over 
four that day, and the world for the moment 
seemed " very good." As I came away from 
their rooms I speculated on what I had seen. The 
question arose in my mind, which is the more 
needy, the poorer, which is the greater beggar, 
which is the more dependent, the more indebted, 
the man who had received the two dollars or the 
one who had received the four dollars? Obvi- 
ously the answer was that the man who had re- 
ceived the most was the most indebted, the most 
dependent, and the greater beggar of the two, if 
there be degrees in such a state. But I passed 
this same corner another time, and glancing as 
I passed to see if my acquaintances, the old men, 
were there, I saw that they were not in their ac- 
customed places that day, but alongside of the 
spot they were wont to occupy an automobile was 
drawn up to the curb. What a beautiful thing 
this great touring car was; what a contrast it and 
its richly garbed occupants made to the two 
squalid old men who usually sat there to beg! 
The incident was all the more interesting to me 
because I knew the family to whom the car be- 
longed; I knew how their money was gotten; it 



i 5 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

was inherited from their father, and not a mem- 
ber of his family had done a serious day's work 
in his life, to the best of my knowledge. But 
where did the father get all these riches? From 
mines in California ? And who put the gold into 
the mines? Certainly it was none other than 
God. 

Thus my mind ran on in this idle yet half log- 
ical way, and I saw the problem so clearly as I 
had never seen it before. Then I applied the 
same test-question I had put to the condition of 
the old men. The old men were commonly 
called beggars, "God's poor"; these who stood 
in their places to-day were termed rich, independ- 
ent. And yet in this instance was not the right 
answer the same that had been made before? 
Was it not true that those who had received most 
were most indebted, those who had been helped 
most were most dependent? And I concluded, 
if there are any degrees in the matter, that the 
rich man is the most indebted, the most depend- 
ent; the real poor is the one who has been most 
helped by God. In short, we are all tenants of 
the tenement of God; we are all dependents on 
the bounty of the great Giver, and there is not 
a man but who must hold out his hat to the Al- 
mighty. 

The principle of giving is ingrained into the 



LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 155 

very constitution of things. " Give and it shall 
be given unto you," is the witnessing of every 
well-stored garden, the testimony of every burst- 
ing barn. The tiniest flower that blooms, had 
we eyes to see it, in the course of its short life 
teaches us that it lives not for itself alone, but 
it, too, must contribute of its vital seed for the 
adorning and beautifying of this fair earth. Man 
on his physical side recognizes the essential truth 
of the principle of giving; behold the athlete, 
with his symmetrical, strong body, with his lithe 
limbs and gnarled muscles; ask him whence he 
got his strength and he will tell you by giving 
his strength. Even the business world recog- 
nizes the ultimate truth of the principle, and 
teaches its disciples that money is saved not by 
hoarding it but by investing it. In the world 
spiritual the more a man spends, the more he 
saves; the more he gives, the more he gets. 
Over all this vast creation which bears the im- 
press of the generous God is written that prin- 
ciple of charity, which he that hath eyes to see 
may see, and which the wise man of olden day 
has expressed in words that are everlastingly true. 
"There is that scattereth and yet increaseth; 
there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but 
it tendeth to poverty." 

However, in this present teaching of our Mas- 



i 5 6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

ter the emphasis is not laid on the necessity of 
giving; that is assumed; it is taken for granted 
that a man who would be pleasing to God shall 
give, and our Teacher's chief thought is turned 
to the method of giving. " Therefore when thou 
doest thine alms," says Jesus, do it in a way that 
is pleasing to your heavenly Father. Should we 
ask what manner of giving is pleasing to God, we 
receive our answer: in the manner in which God 
is constantly giving. Secretly, silently, unosten- 
tatiously is the method of God's giving. So se- 
cretly and silently does He give that many men 
to-day do not recognize that their lives and all 
that support and make possible their lives is the 
gift of God. 

How crude and dull of mind and heart we are, 
to declare that God's sustenance of the Children 
of Israel in the wilderness of Zin in the olden 
time is miraculous and not to see that God's sup- 
port and sustenance of all His children in every 
time and in the wilderness of the world is equally 
miraculous! Because we do not see a visible 
hand of God filled with the food for our tables, 
because God gives us our fruit and our grain 
through the broad hand of the well-filled bough, 
and the tiny hand of the stalk of wheat, we do 
not rightly recognize the gift of food from our 
heavenly Father. And yet this is the character- 



LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 157 

izing mark of all of God's gifts. The very man- 
ner of giving shows it to be from God. Light 
is the gift of God — necessary to all life; with- 
out light, no life; and yet did you ever note how 
the light comes? Quietly, gradually, stealthily, 
unobtrusively it dawns, and God's day is about 
us. God's great gift of light vivifies us. So did 
God give His unspeakable gift of Jesus Christ 
— in the darkness, in the night, in a tiny spot of 
earth, in a rockhewn cave, as a little child, thus 
came God's greatest gift to man. So comes that 
good gift of His own Spirit, which He is more 
ready to give to us than we are to give good gifts 
to our children, quietly, gently, softly as the dew 
upon the grass, we cannot tell whence he cometh, 
we cannot always tell when he cometh, but we 
only know that he is here. The day of Pentecost 
was by no means a type of the normal manner 
of the coming of the Spirit. The manner of his 
coming at Pentecost was as much a departure 
from the normal manner of his coming as was 
the resurrection of Jesus an abnormality in the 
realm of physical death. And this is the method 
of all God's giving. 

As our heavenly Father giveth, so ought we 
to give, for we are to be like Him in this, and 
this is the teaching of our Savior. Therefore, 
says Jesus, " When thou doest thine alms," do 



158 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

not do them showily, noisily, with a sound of 
trumpets and a publication of the fact of your 
liberality, but give so quietly that " your left hand 
knoweth not what your right hand giveth." 
Worship God in your giving " in secret." Giving 
is a spiritual act, an act of worship, and so a mat- 
ter unseen, hidden, not for the applause of men 
but for the sake of your Father. 

I recollect to have seen in the little town of 
Witney, England, one of the most refreshing in- 
stances of this humble and hidden method of giv- 
ing. There is there situated a charitable insti- 
tution of some sort; the building is of stone and 
of goodly proportions, representing an outlay of 
a large sum of money. Across the front of it, 
carven in letters of stone there is this inscrip- 
tion, " Give God the Praise." There is no men- 
tion of the name of the donor, no word of praise 
of his gift. The purpose of that gift, it seemed 
to me, was plain — for the praise of God; the 
method of it was perfect, and that building 
stands to-day a silent act of worship in stone to 
the Almighty and an abiding testimony to the 
right method of giving. Giving, according to 
Christ's teaching, is primarily an act of worship, 
a thing that is to be done for the sake of the 
Father, and therefore ought to be done in the 
way that is acceptable to the Father, and not for 



LIVE THE CHARITABLE LIFE 159 

the praise or approval of men. 

Then the Master further assigns a practical 
reason for giving after this manner. Those who 
give to be seen of men receive their reward; 
" they have their reward." It is a reward that 
is visible, temporal and unsatisfactory. They are 
seen of men, they are to-day noted in the papers. 
They have the satisfaction of having their char- 
ity and generosity commented upon, and not in- 
frequently criticised and minimized. They re- 
ceive their degrees and titles as a reward for their 
charities, and when they have received them, 
what are they worth? In other words, giving as 
an earthly and material investment is not worth 
while; it does not bring in the returns that one 
might expect, as the heart-disappointment of 
many a charitable man has proven. For those 
who give after this earthly, imperfect manner, 
have no reward from God; no spiritual satisfac- 
tion; no inner blessing; no future prospect of rec- 
ognition by the Father; nothing, to resort to a 
commercial figure, on heaven's ledger to their 
credit. But those who give as an act of wor- 
ship; those who give unostentatiously, in secret, 
and for the sake of God, have the assurance that 
God sees their gift, God approves their gift, God 
recognizes the giver and God will recompense 
them openly. 



i6o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

In that last judgment scene, recorded in the 
twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew, where the na- 
tions are gathered before the Lord for his ap- 
proval or disapproval, the grace that sets those 
at his right hand is the grace of charity. And 
how beautiful is the kind of giving that is there 
pictured; those who are there termed the right- 
eous are those who gave to the necessity of their 
fellows, and those who in their giving gave so 
simply, so naturally, so in accord with the Mas- 
ter's teaching that they had forgotten that they 
had given, and were unaware that they had min- 
istered unto the wants of their needy brethren, 
until the Lord himself awakened them with the 
sweet surprise, " Inasmuch as ye have done it unto 
the least of these my brethren ye have done it 
unto me." Surely there is no more spiritual grace 
than the grace of giving; no more acceptable act 
of worship than the act of giving; and I am per- 
suaded, on the authority of Scripture and on the 
authority of the Master's own words, that it is 
charity and charity of this kind that shall cover 
a multitude of sins. 



CHAPTER X 

LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 
Matt, vi, 5-15 

IT had indeed been a strange thing if Jesus had 
taught his disciples nothing concerning prayer. 
It would have been beyond explanation if one 
whose religion was the very essence of spiritual- 
ity, one who lived in such close and intimate touch 
with the invisible and heavenly world, one who 
dwelt in such perfect harmony with God that he 
could say, " I and my Father are one," one whose 
life was the visible expression of the power of 
prayer, the perfect exemplification of the life of 
prayer — we say it would have been inexplicable 
if this one had not taught his disciples and the 
world something on the subject of prayer. In 
this passage now before us we have the Master's 
teaching on this important theme. 

That he speaks at this time on the theme of 
prayer is not by chance nor is this subject illog- 
ically related to the subject of giving, which he 
has just explained. The theme of charity and 
alms-giving follows directly and logically from 
what the Teacher has said concerning the perfect 
161 



1 62 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

life and the law of love. There he has taught 
us that we are to be the children of our heavenly 
Father, who " maketh his sun to rise on the evil 
and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and 
the unjust "; in other words, as God is a giver, so 
are we to be givers, and the theme of liberality and 
charity is born of the root of love. After like 
manner the matter of prayer follows with a logical 
propriety after a consideration of the theme of giv- 
ing, for prayer in its broadest, deepest aspect rests 
on and rises from a realization of man's utter de- 
pendence on the gifts of God, and in its most ele- 
mental form prayer is the making known of our 
wants to God, and its chief mark in this stage of its 
development is petition. That petition is a divi- 
sion of prayer all works and all authorities on 
the subject clearly maintain. ■ 

That prayer is the making known our wants, 
the asking for those things which we need, is 
clearly evidenced by a consideration of prayer as 
it is commonly practiced; the child idea of prayer 
is that it is a means by which we get what we 
ask for, and many a life has never gotten beyond 
this true, though primal and incomplete, idea of 
prayer. This is a danger, that prayer shall be 
considered merely as a want bureau, and a spirit- 
ual exercise shall be made to promote our selfish- 
ness. At all events, the fact that God supplies 



LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 163 

our every need is closely connected with the 
thought that we have a right to make known our 
needs unto God — and giving and praying are 
related subjects. 

But prayer is something more than the act of 
making known our wants to God — out of this 
same truth of God's giving and our heavenly 
Father's provision for our entire life, rises the 
next idea of prayer, that it is a grateful recogni- 
tion of those many gifts and perfect givings that 
have already come from Him. The element of 
thanksgiving enters into true prayer — and the 
grateful heart here has a means of exercising the 
true and proper sentiment of gratitude. But 
prayer in a still higher aspect is an act of wor- 
ship. It is the means by which the spirit of man 
comes into touch with the Spirit of God. It is 
the communion of the spiritual with the spiritual; 
the intercourse of earthly person with the heavenly 
Person; it is the way of praise, glory, exaltation, 
aspiration; it is the breath of the soul, the wings 
of the spirit, the secret stairway to power, the 
one exercise enjoyed in common between the 
dwellers on this earth and the inhabitants of the 
heavenly places. It is the highest act of which 
the mortal spirit is capable; it is the acceptable 
worship of God; it is the true practice of right- 
eousness, and under this head of the " doing of 



1 64 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

righteousness " the Master here refers to prayer. 

Prayer in all its forms, whether of petition, 
supplication, thanksgiving or worship is a neces- 
sity of the human soul. This is clearly shown 
from a consideration of the universality of the 
practice of prayer. The record of the most spir- 
itual peoples given in the Bible and the records of 
the most material and carnal peoples given in the 
histories of the world, are one in witnessing to 
this fact, that men pray to the Power that is with- 
out them, the God that is above them, in all na- 
tions and at all times. Even back of the evi- 
dence of the fact seems to lie the explanation of 
the fact — prayer is an instinct of the soul. It 
is a pouring out of the soul in the presence of a 
stronger and wiser than can be found among the 
sons of men, thus giving vent to that ineradicable 
appetence of the soul, the desire for confession. 
It is a lifting up of the spirit of man toward 
that which is highest and best in the universe, 
thus giving the most perfect exercise to that di- 
vinity which stirs within us, that larger self which 
dwells within this narrow house, whose cry for 
the upper air, whose call for the larger life, we 
term aspiration. 

But prayer is further a privilege which the 
good God has vouchsafed to the children of men. 
It is the present evidence within our very hearts 



LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 165 

that when He completed the world, He did not 
cast it off into space to spin its course alone and 
unattended. Prayer is that golden touch which 
binds the earth to the footstool of its Maker; it 
is the ladder of communication between the hu- 
man creature and his Creator; it is the access of 
the subject to the King of kings and the Lord of 
lords ; it is the door of that room where dwelleth 
the Father, open at all times to the entrance of 
the Father's little children. 

But prayer is still more than this; it is a reli- 
gious culture, the best and the truest that man 
can practice. In prayer we glorify His wisdom 
and power; in prayer we recall His goodness; 
in prayer we meditate upon His mercy; in prayer 
we recognize the reality and have the proof of 
His forgiveness and favor; in prayer every at- 
tribute, quality and manifestation of God may be 
rightly recalled and dwelt upon, not now from a 
theological or controversial standpoint, but from 
a spiritual and practical side, and thus prayer 
maintains and inculcates a vivid sense of the real- 
ity and nearness of God, and impresses upon our 
minds and lives a true picture of His glory, char- 
acter and being. Thus prayer is the best culture 
of the soul. 

Therefore, since prayer is of the nature and 
of the use that we have here briefly seen it to 



1 66 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

be, since it is a practice ingrained in our natures, 
commanded in Scripture implicitly and explicitly, 
it is not strange that our Master devotes so large 
a part of this short discourse to a teaching con- 
cerning prayer; it would have been passing strange 
had he not done so. 

As in the former section, that concerning giv- 
ing, so here, the emphasis is not laid on the fact 
of the practice, but on the manner of it. The 
fact that men will and ought to pray is taken for 
granted, as the words " and when thou prayest " 
signify, but that when men pray. they should pray 
as God would have them pray is the object of the 
Master's teaching in this passage. And so in the 
first section of this teaching he tells us what prayer 
ought not to be. The first warning he gives as 
to prayer is that prayer is not to be ostentatious 
but " in secret." A prayer that is right and ac- 
ceptable with God does not depend upon posture, 
elegance or aptness of expression, inventiveness 
of thought or form, but upon the simple and genu- 
ine outpouring of the spirit of man in the pres- 
ence of the Spirit of God. There is need for 
warning just at this point, for though a man may 
come to that high thought of prayer that it is a 
means of worship of God, yet one can discover 
in himself and see in the history of public prayer 
the peril that naturally arises at this point. Men 



LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 167 

are prone to confound the substance with the 
form, to feel that if the form is correct the fact 
itself is correct, and so to lay the emphasis at the 
wrong place in the practice of prayer. In other 
words, that man who in his prayers prays to be 
seen of men, approved by the cultured, endorsed 
by the educated, rather than to give expression 
of his simple soul in a simple way to God, is the 
man who has missed the central idea of prayer. 
Prayer is a concern between an individual and his 
God. It is an attitude of soul rather than an at- 
titude of body. And a man might repeat the 
most rhetorical and perfectly worded prayer that 
was ever constructed, and yet utter a prayer that 
reaches no higher from earth than the ears of 
that audience before whom and for whom the 
prayer is primarily given. Such a prayer is a 
prayer to an audience and not a prayer to God. 
Such was the prayer characterized in a Boston 
paper as " the most eloquent prayer ever deliv- 
ered to a Boston audience." The weakness of 
ostentatious prayer is that a man will not be true 
to himself nor to his God. It was because he 
knew that others were hearing him, and he was 
praying for their ears rather than for the ear 
of God, that the Pharisee uttered that bombastic 
and boastful prayer in the temple. 

The secret, private, individual, spiritual char- 



1 68 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

acter of true prayer is most markedly empha- 
sized in the words of our Lord. He says, " But 
thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and 
when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father 
which is in secret." This most clearly exhibits 
the inner character of prayer; it is an opening 
of the heart and mind to God. This is a moment 
when a man must be utterly forgetful of appear- 
ances — this is a time when a man must be emi- 
nently truthful, sincere, simple. This is the phase 
of prayer illustrated in David's words when he 
says, " Search me, O God, and know my heart; 
try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there 
be any way of grief or pain within me, and lead 
me in the way which is everlasting." 

The words of our Lord simply emphasize the 
honest and secret character of the truest form of 
prayer. They do not inveigh against public 
prayer, for this must be the characteristic of even 
public prayer; for the individual, such prayer is 
really " in secret," and a matter between each soul 
and his God, and therefore no minister can pray 
for a people, or with a people, unless the people 
are with him in thought and spirit while he prays. 
If they are wool-gathering, or dreaming of their 
business, or wandering here and there in their 
thoughts during the prayer, as well have a ma- 
chine turn out the prayers as a man, as far as the 



LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 169 

individual is concerned. Yet while these words 
of Christ do not teach against the practice of 
public prayer, it does seem that they do bear the 
meaning that prayer in private is more excellent, 
and more to be preferred as a means of wor- 
shiping God, as He would have us, than is public 
prayer. That man who practices prayer in se- 
cret is safe in his spiritual life. As one has said, 
" A man never backslides on his knees." At all 
events, our Master lays the emphasis most 
strongly on the thought that prayer is secret, in- 
dividual, spiritual and an act of worship. 

Again, says our Teacher, in your prayer be not 
repetitious but in earnest. In other words, he 
teaches that there is no virtue in the mere saying 
over of prayers. This calls a positive halt to 
a common mistake of mankind. There is an ele- 
ment of superstition in every man, and there ever 
has been a tendency to tie the worth of a reli- 
gious practice to the form of that practice. In 
other words, men are continually in danger of 
making religion external and formal. Among the 
Chinese we see a clear illustration of this failing 
of mankind right in point; these people, feeling 
that prayer to their deity is good and that much 
prayer is better, have constructed ingenious ma- 
chines containing rolls on which are written prop- 
erly worded and rightly approved prayers; these 



1 7 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

machines are placed in a stream of running water 
and so the prayer is rolled on and on while water 
runs. It is beyond explanation strange that an 
intelligent being could imagine that an Intelligent 
Being could be moved or praised by such a me- 
chanical worship. But we need not go to heathen 
countries for illustration of this mistaken view of 
prayer; right in our own midst we have those 
who " think that they shall be heard for their 
much speaking," and who roll out " Pater Nos- 
ters " and " Ave Marias " day and night, with 
the mechanical regularity and the unintelligent 
worship of a Chinese prayer-wheel. It is against 
all forms of mechanical and formal worship of 
God that Jesus directs these words on prayer — 
in every line of this great discourse he teaches us 
that the worship and service of God must be in 
spirit and in truth; that the spirit of the worship 
is of the first importance and that the form is 
everywhere of secondary importance. He here 
plainly says that there is a distinction to be made 
between saying one's prayers and praying. 

But his teaching on even this subject is spiritual 
and in principle and must be so interpreted. 
There is no vice in the repetition of petition and 
request if these be in earnest and if the heart 
of the one who prays wings them on their up- 
ward way. 



LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 171 

There come moments in the life, states of mind, 
crises in the experience, depths of helplessness and 
need, when all that the soul can do is to cry again 
and again the call for help; moments when the 
very repetition is the best evidence of the earnest- 
ness of the one who prays. Such a moment came 
to the Master himself in the Garden of Geth- 
semane when three times and in the identical 
words he prayed, saying, " O my Father, if it be 
possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless 
not as I will, but as Thou wilt." Such a prayer 
is not a contradiction, but an illustration of the 
deeper meaning of Christ's teaching, that our 
prayers must not be repetitious but in earnest. 

Again our Master says, in substance, let not 
your praying be superstitious but intelligent. 
True prayer is not a mechanical process but an 
intelligent communion; I presume that prayer in 
its best expression is the most perfect manifesta- 
tion of which the human intellect is capable. Its 
acceptableness and efficacy are not tied to place, 
form, person nor material thing of any sort; it 
is the most spiritual reality with which mankind 
is familiar. While this is true, it does not nega- 
tive the related truth that periodic and frequent 
prayer is desirable, for one may come to his knees 
periodically with a hunger and thirst after God, 
as one comes to the table periodically with a 



1 72 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

hunger and thirst after material aliment. And 
in the one case as in the other, strength, calm, pa- 
tience, power, is the reward of the true and peri- 
odic coming. And yet there is a sense, and our 
experiences have made us familiar with it, in 
which stated, periodic prayer may foster the 
superstitious idea. " If you don't say your prayer 
at night something will happen to you," is a teach- 
ing, akin to fetichism rather than spirituality. 

Jesus teaches in the simple and beautiful words 
of the eighth verse of this chapter that prayer is 
the intelligent communion between the Parent and 
the child. In most simple form this truth reads 
— God knows our needs before we know them 
ourselves, and better than we know them our- 
selves, yet He likes to have us ask Him for things 
we need, He likes to have His children talk with 
Him about their lives. Was there ever any 
truth more comforting than this, more uplifting, 
ennobling, more inspiring, more encouraging a 
mortal man to the practice of frequent prayer? 

What is more gratifying and gladdening to the 
parent's heart than to have his child come to 
him at the close of the day, to have his child lay 
open the things, the secret things of his life, to 
talk it all over with father or mother? Does 
this not reveal a trust in the parent, a confidence, 
a love, a right relation of the life and the heart 



LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 173 

of the child to the parent? God asks for just 
this in His children, and no more, for there is 
nothing higher or better for which to ask. And 
what can be more helpful to the child than to 
have and to exercise just this privilege — of con- 
fession, communion and conference with a good 
parent? After such a meeting the child goes 
away, stronger, happier, brighter, better, and love 
has known its best expression. This is the priv- 
ilege and this is the blessing which the child of 
God is offered in prayer — the right to talk it 
over with his heavenly Father, and from the ex- 
ercise of such a divine right a man goes away 
stronger, happier, brighter, better, and love has 
had its most perfect expression. I hold it to be 
true that no better illustration can be found of 
God's close and tender relations to His children 
than those figures of our Lord wherein he likens 
the heavenly Father's relation to His children to 
the right relation of a good father to a loving 
child. And how often Christ uses this figure! 

Thus, in these opening words, our Lord 
teaches his disciples how they ought to pray — 
and having taught them this he turns to the 
equally important subject of what they ought to 
pray for — in this they are likewise in need of 
teaching. It is not our purpose here to give a 
treatise on the Lord's Prayer; this has been done 



i 7 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

often and well by others; we would simply indi- 
cate what seems to us to be the main import, the 
underlying purpose, of this pattern prayer which 
the Lord taught his disciples. First, this prayer 
contains a suggestion as to the form of prayer. 
We observe that the Lord's Prayer is simple in 
its spirit and diction; direct and straightforward 
in its utterance, free from all fulsomeness, void 
of all cant; it is the honest, simple utterance of 
a simple, honest soul. We remark again its 
brevity, short sentences, thoughts tersely put, a 
perfect example of his own dictum; be not repe- 
titious; and lastly it reveals an order in its con- 
struction; an order of importance, treating first 
of the things of God and then of the things of 
man; an order of excellence in the things of man, 
beginning with the material and ascending into 
the spiritual; and, finally, it reaches a climax, re- 
turning in the perfect circle to that theme with 
which it began, " for thine is the kingdom, the 
power and the glory forever. Amen." 

We have termed this the Pattern Prayer, and 
such it is and such was its purpose. Not that 
this is the only prayer which his disciples are to 
use; the spirit of true prayer is free and it must 
ever be left to the individual to determine his 
own form of prayer, if prayer is to be what it 
was intended to be — the free expression of the 



LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 175 

soul of the individual. But Jesus knew our need 
of teaching in this matter, the disciples realized 
their need of teaching and so asked, " Lord, 
teach us to pray"; and our Teacher implies the 
purpose of this prayer in the words, " After this 
manner therefore pray ye." In other words, the 
underlying thought of this Pattern Prayer is not 
pray for those things that ye want, but learn to 
pray for those things that ye ought to want; and 
thus shall the right training in prayer beget the 
right spirit in want. 

I believe we may truly say that Jesus' prayer in 
Gethsemane gives evidence of this blessed result 
of right prayer, for in the very act of praying 
his spirit and desire are brought perfectly to coin- 
cide with what his Father wills for him. 

First then our Pattern Prayer teaches us that 
we are to pray for the coming of God's kingdom, 
and this is based on the major teaching of the 
religion of Christ, " Seek first the kingdom of 
God," etc. Nor is a man to be unintelligent and 
contradictory in this petition; let him not pray 
for it unless he also works for it. It is an ab- 
surdity for a man to pray for what he does not 
want. " Thy kingdom come " is not a pious ut- 
terance but a practical petition. Secondly, we 
are to pray for our physical necessities. This pe- 
tition bears a relation to the former petition, but 



i 7 6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

it comes in the second place and is of secondary 
importance. In this prayer we see that our nat- 
ural desire is warrantable, our natural requests 
are permissible. Next, we are to make known 
and ask help in our moral necessities; that is, help 
that we may fulfill Christ's teachings and observe 
the right relation to our brethren. The right re- 
lation to them is included in the meaning of love 
— an essential expression of love is forgiveness. 
This is the only petition in this prayer to which 
a limitation is plainly expressed; this limitation 
our Lord later emphasizes and explains, " For if 
ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly 
Father will also forgive you; but if ye forgive not 
men their trespasses, neither will your Father for- 
give your trespasses." This clause in this prayer 
one needs to dwell upon, think over; in a meas- 
ure the answer to prayer depends upon the man 
himself. Our greatest debt to God is our debt 
to our fellows. Then we are to pray for our 
spiritual interests; to realize our absolute depend- 
ence upon God; to trust Him; to be fully aware 
that because His is the kingdom, His the power, 
and His the glory forever, no prayer that is ever 
uttered by a sincere heart, in a simple way, by a 
child-like spirit, shall ever fail of an adequate and 
perfect answer. 

The hour of secret prayer, of prayer after this 



LIVE THE PRAYERFUL LIFE 177 

spirit and after this manner, was the source of 
the power and glory in the life of our Lord; the 
secret which opens this door of privilege, power 
and blessing, our Lord communicates to his disci- 
ples and to us in these heavenly teachings we 
have just considered. 



CHAPTER XI 

LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 

Matt, vi, 1 6-1 8 

IT is not improbable that fasting arose orig- 
inally from necessity. In primitive civiliza- 
tion, in the early ages, when men were dependent 
for their sustenance upon the free products of 
the soil or on the precarious fortunes of the chase, 
the occasions would not infrequently occur when 
abstinence was a necessity. In those days, when 
men lived near to nature's heart and the inter- 
pretation of nature's ways was the interpretation 
of the will of a super-human being, it is not un- 
natural to suppose that those who of necessity 
must fast saw in it something of a will above 
that of man. So, in a way, the fast was the will 
of the gods. 

Add to this the fact that in times of distress, 
sorrow, agitation or anxiety one's appetite nat- 
urally wanes and there is no desire for food. 
This was the frequent experience of men. By 
a simple and natural interchange of terms, as 
when one was in humiliation or sorrow he fasted, 
so when he fasted it was an evidence of sorrow 
and contrition. In this way " abstinence, which 
178 



LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 179 

seemed imposed by Providence, if not in expiation 
of guilt, yet as an accompaniment of sorrow, eas- 
ily became regarded as a religious duty when 
voluntarily prolonged or assumed, and grew to 
be considered as an efficacious means for appeas- 
ing the divine wrath, and restoring prosperity and 
peace." 1 Now when such a fast was carried on 
to a degree, the practitioner, from the reduced 
vitality consequent upon lack of sufficient nour- 
ishment, and from the increased nervous suscep- 
tibility, would be liable to visions, hallucinations, 
vagaries of the imagination. These would be in- 
terpreted as revelations of the gods, marks of 
approval, and so fasting would be both a con- 
sequence and a cause of these divine apparitions. 
In some such way as this fasting came to be as- 
sociated with religious ceremony and worship. 
At all events, whatever the origin, from the earli- 
est times and among all peoples, fasting has been 
a common religious practice. 

The probability is that it was practiced among 
the Assyrians and Babylonians. Among the 
Greeks the regulations of the Orphic societies, as 
early as the seventh century B. c, " demanded 
total abstinence from meat and beans, and subse- 
quently the highest rites in the Eleusinian mys- 

1 McClintock and Strong and New International Encyclopedia, 
in loco. 



1 80 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

teries were preceded by a day of fasting." 2 
While fasting does not seem to have been com- 
mon among the Egyptians, yet in the mysteries 
of Isis and Osiris it was practiced. Among the 
Romans also it was a practice at their festivals, 
and in later times before initiation into their se- 
cret societies. It is found in Persia and India 
- — it is a rule of Brahmanism and Buddhism — 
it was observed among the Aztecs and Toltecs of 
Mexico. The aborigines of America followed 
the custom, and the Indians of the West, in the 
ceremonies of the Sun Dance, still preserve the 
custom. The Mohammedans fast and the Ro- 
man Catholic church to-day still has its stated 
times of abstaining from food. 

It is to this religious practice which has been 
so general and so widely accepted that Christ 
turns our attention in this part of his discourse. 

If we advert to the history of the Jews we 
find that fasting was practiced by them as by the 
other nations. In the earlier times of the nation, 
fasting followed the natural inclination, was spon- 
taneous and not regulated by law. Previous to 
the Exile, the only fast statedly observed seems 
to have been that of the Great Day of the Atone- 
ment. But after the exile, when there came that 
revival of the ceremonies of religion days of pub- 

2 International Encyclopedia, in loco. 



LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 181 

lie fasting were inaugurated. Then there were 
four fasts in the year, in the fourth, fifth, sev- 
enth and tenth months — each of these com- 
memorating some sad and calamitous event in the 
nation's history. 

The Pharisees, as one might predict, strict fol- 
lowers of form, excellers in outward righteous- 
ness, added to these general fasts the personal 
custom of fasting twice in the week, on Mondays 
and Thursdays, and it is for this work of super- 
erogation that the Pharisee of Christ's parable 
proudly thanks his God. 

Jesus dwelt among a people who practiced fast- 
ing, and here and in one other place in the Gos- 
pels he refers to the practice. It is interesting 
and instructive for us to study the attitude of the 
Master toward this matter. 

He does not wholly condemn but he interprets 
and regulates the practice. Combine this pas- 
sage in Matt, vi, 16-18 with that other recorded 
in Matt, ix, 14-17, and those passages in Mark 
and Luke parallel to this, and we have substan- 
tially the Master's teaching on the subject of 
fasting. 

From the question of John's disciples, " Why 
do John's disciples and the disciples of the Phar- 
isees fast, but thy disciples fast not? " we can 
readily and safely infer that Jesus himself did 



1 82 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

not fast, as a form, neither did he teach his dis- 
ciples so to do. Nor is this statement inconsist- 
ent with the references to Christ's fast of forty 
days, and his utterance, " this kind goeth not out 
but by prayer and fasting " ; these but bear out 
and verify his teachings in this connection. Jesus 
says fasting is good if it be not a mere form but 
a genuine expression of the heart and life. 

Fasting is a natural expression of sorrow, agi- 
tation and deep emotion. Thus David could not 
eat while the life of his beloved child hung in 
the balance (II Sam. xii, 16), and Paul was with- 
out food or drink three days after the stirring 
experience of his sudden conversion (Acts ix, 9), 
and Christ abstained from nourishment, in a 
measure if not altogether, at the time of his great 
moral and spiritual battle. At the same time 
Jesus condemns the mechanical, superstitious 
practice of the fast as a form. 

God is not pleased with form as form. His 
religion is not mechanical and external but of the 
heart. This is the underlying spirit of this sixth 
chapter up to the eighteenth verse. Your right- 
eousness is not to be in the sight of men, not for- 
mal, but real. How inconsistent, says he, it 
would be for his disciples to fast, while they still 
have the bridegroom with them. The Gospel of 
Jesus was the Gospel of gladness, while the re- 



LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 183 

ligion of John was the gospel of gloom. John 
was the prophet of the night; the night, if you 
will, which sloped toward the morning, but none 
the less of the night. Christ was the prophet of 
the light. The day had come with him. 

We see further how the teaching and prophecy 
of Jesus were later fulfilled on that night when 
they scattered, as sheep without a shepherd — 
during those three days when they felt that their 
leader and head had been removed, we may rest 
assured that they fasted and that their fast was 
genuine. But after this the shepherd came back 
to his sheep; the Master returned to his disci- 
ples — and the cause for fasting as a religious 
practice was forever removed. 

Then Jesus proceeds to give his questioners a 
reason why formal fasting may be abated. The 
cloth of gladness will not fit into the garment of 
gloom, the spirit of rejoicing would burst the old 
wine skins of sadness. The teaching that Jesus 
here gives finds its echo in the words of Paul in 
his letters to the Philippians, " Rejoice in the Lord 
alway: and again I say rejoice." 3 In other 
words, Christ in these passages acknowledges the 
principle of fasting, which principle we shall con- 
sider later, but condemns its present practice. 

Jesus condemns this practice because of the 

3 Philip, iv, 4. 



1 84 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

false idea of God that it contained: the idea that 
affliction and disfiguring of the body, in itself, was 
pleasing to the Almighty. The idea that me- 
chanical methods could purchase favor with God. 
Such an idea rests on a false premise — to wit, 
that God is our enemy, our ill-wisher, that He 
finds pleasure in our affliction and discomfort, 
that He is jealous of human pleasure and human 
happiness. This is a heathen idea, and finds il- 
lustration among the heathen nations, even the 
most enlightened of them. How prominent 
among the Greeks, with their knowledge and cul- 
ture, how evident in their dramas and mytholo- 
gies, is the idea that the gods are jealous, envious, 
bitter toward men. The gods of those times 
could not bear to see their subjects too prosper- 
ous, successful or happy. What scheming in the 
circles of Olympus to defeat the plans and darken 
the life of some poor human, who was a favorite 
of one of the gods and hence an enemy of all the 
others! Nor did this idea which seems to grow 
native among the heathen nations, find abatement 
in later times among those peoples who had been 
taught in the religion of Christ. 

The history of the church is filled with illus- 
tration of belief in this fact — that God grudges 
happiness to man and is placated and pleased with 
the life of misery. This section of the moral 



LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 185 

and religious history of mankind affords most fas- 
cinating, while most depressing, reading. At all 
events, read W. H. Lecky's " History of Euro- 
pean Morals " and we find ample evidence of the 
prevalence of this unchristian belief. I quote at 
length from Mr. Lecky's second volume. 
" There is, perhaps, no phase in the moral his- 
tory of mankind of deeper or more painful in- 
terest than this ascetic epidemic. A hideous, sor- 
did and emaciated maniac, without knowledge, 
without patriotism, without natural affection, pass- 
ing his life in a long routine of useless and 
atrocious self-torture, and quailing before the 
ghastly phantoms of his delirious brain, had be- 
come the ideal of the nations which had known 
the writings of Plato and Cicero and the lives of 
Socrates and Cato." 4 " For about two centuries 
the hideous maceration of the body was regarded 
as the highest proof of excellence." Men went 
without food, without sleep, without washing, 
without comfort — enduring sufferings, priva- 
tions, flagellations, macerations, not because they 
were necessary or required by the circumstances 
of a life of service, but for mere form's sake — 
and to win favor with a God who delighted in 
the misery of his creatures. 

4 Vid. here et seq., W. H. Lecky's " History of European 
Morals," Vol. II, pp. 100-140, edition 1879. 



1 86 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

There is the record of one monk, " who for 
thirty years had lived exclusively on a small por- 
tion of barley bread and of muddy water, and of 
another, who lived in a hole and never ate more 
than five figs for his daily repast." 

There was a famous saint, named John, of 
whom it is asserted " that for three whole years 
he stood in prayer, leaning upon a rock; that dur- 
ing all that time he never sat down, and that his 
only nourishment was the sacrament which was 
brought him on Sundays." While there were lit- 
erally multitudes who practiced these hideous 
rites, the palm of excellence must, without doubt, 
be yielded to St. Simeon Stylites, who exceeded 
all his brethren in the severity of his life. Of 
him Mr. Lecky writes : " It would be difficult to 
conceive of a more horrible or disgusting picture 
than is given of the penances by which that saint 
commenced his ascetic career. He had bound a 
rope around him so that it became imbedded in 
his flesh, which putrified around it. A horrible 
stench, intolerable to the bystanders, exhaled 
from his body, and worms dropped from him 
whenever he moved, and they filled his bed ! He 
built successively three pillars, the last being sixty 
feet high and scarcely two cubits in circumference, 
and on this pillar, during thirty years, he re- 
mained exposed to every change of climate, 



LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 187 

ceaselessly and rapidly bending his body in prayer 
almost to the level of his feet." " For a whole 
year we are told St. Simeon stood upon one leg, 
the other being covered with hideous ulcers, while 
his biographer was commissioned to stand by his 
side, to pick up the worms that fell from his 
body, and to replace them in the sores, the saint 
saying to the worm, ' Eat what God has given 
you.' " He it was whom " the general voice of 
mankind pronounced to be the highest model of 
a Christian saint; and several other anchorites 
imitated or emulated his penances." 

Another strange manifestation of this princi- 
ple of formal fasting is evidenced in the insane 
desire to destroy that which is naturally attrac- 
tive or beautiful. " The cleanliness of the body 
was regarded as a pollution of the soul, and the 
saints who were most admired had become one 
mass of clotted filth." " St. Abraham the her- 
mit, who lived for fifty years after his conversion, 
rigidly refused from that date to wash either his 
face or his feet." " He was, it is said, a person 
of singular beauty, and his biographer somewhat 
strangely remarks that ' his face reflected the pur- 
ity of his soul.' " " A famous virgin named Sil- 
via, though she was sixty years old and though 
bodily sickness was a consequence of her habits, 
resolutely refused on religious principles to wash 



1 88 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

any part of her body except her fingers." 

The hideous and grotesque painting of the face 
and body, by the African and Indian savage in 
his religious ceremony is a further illustration of 
this disfigurement and destruction of the naturally 
beautiful. Nor have there been wanting, in any 
age of the history of the church, among circles 
most highly educated and cultured, individuals 
and groups who have shown this same desire to 
abhor and condemn that which is beautiful. Ever 
have there been those who have protested that 
all adornment of the person, all grace of dress 
and outward appearance was a sin against God, 
and to be utterly condemned. We can only stand 
and marvel at the darkness of superstition and 
the deceivableness of sin in the hearts of those 
people who while living in a world, which God 
has clothed with beauty and adorned in every part 
with a glory which is but a faint reflection of His 
own nature, yet thought that hideousness and 
ugliness, must be acceptable unto Him. 

Still one other fruit, the product of this bane- 
ful principle, that God loves to see His children 
miserable and takes delight in human unhappi- 
ness, is found in another form of fasting — the 
annihilation of all that gives pleasure and all that 
delights the senses or comforts the life of man. 
" The hermit's cell was the scene of perpetual 



LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 189 

mourning." " The duty," said St. Jerome, " of 
a monk is not to teach but to weep." If the nat- 
ural rigors and privations of the hermit's life were 
not enough to distress and harrow his flesh, he 
must needs resort to flagellations and penances, 
until his ideal bodily misery was accomplished. 
To be comfortable was to be irreligious, to be 
miserable was to please God. 

One particular form of robbing the life of its 
gladness and joy was the severing of those nat- 
ural ties and the destruction of those natural af- 
fections implanted by God. " A man named 
Mutius, accompanied by his only child, a little 
boy eight years old, abandoned his possessions 
and demanded admission into a monastery. The 
monks received him but they proceeded to disci- 
pline his heart." " He had already forgotten 
that he was rich, he must next be taught to forget 
that he was a father." " His little child was sep- 
arated from him, clothed in dirty rags, subject 
to every form of gross and wanton hardship, 
beaten, spurned, and ill treated." All this the 
father had to behold and at last, as the crucial 
test, " the abbot told him to take his child and 
to throw it into the river. He proceeded with- 
out a murmur or apparent pang, to obey, and it 
was only at the last moment that the monks in- 
terposed, and on the very brink of the river saved 



i 9 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

the child." 5 Instances of a similar sort might be 
multiplied, but enough to say that fathers left 
their children and families, children left their 
aged and dependent parents. And in this grue- 
some category we have ample illustration of what 
Paul said of those last days, when men should 
be lovers of their own selves, for this entire prac- 
tice was but sublimated selfishness, and a man's 
whole aim to save his own soul, " boasters, proud, 
disobedient to parents, unholy, and without nat- 
ural affection." 6 How strange it is that men did 
and men do attribute to the good God, " a char- 
acter that would disgrace a Hottentot." 

How this inhuman, unnatural practice of men 
contrasts with the Master's teaching concerning 
our heavenly Father. God is our well-wisher, 
our friend, our Father, and not our enemy. This 
is the teaching of reason, of Scripture, and of 
Christ. The suffering of our body, the distresses 
of our lives, are a matter of His deep concern. 
Lovingly did Jesus say, " I am come that they 
might have life and have it more abundantly " — 
more abundantly in body, mind and estate. And 
the following of his simple, beautiful teachings 

5 For a study of asceticism, in more modern instances — and from 
the standpoint of a psychologist, vid. " Varieties of Religious Ex- 
periences," by Wm. James, pp. 296-325, Longmans, Green & Co., 
1906. 

6 II Tim. iii, 2. 



LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 191 

will produce these desired results. Clearly is it 
written, " Know ye not that your body is the 
temple of the Holy Spirit — therefore glorify 
God in your body." 7 Again, " If any man de- 
stroy the temple of God, him shall God destroy." 8 
How could men ever have dreamed that the abuse 
of the body, which He gave them, could be 
pleasing or acceptable to Him? Or that the 
Giver of every good gift and of every perfect 
giving could be envious of men's enjoyment and 
use of life's goods? 

How clearly did Jesus perceive and condemn 
the evil of this formal fasting — when men 
should become hypocrites, mummers, play-actors, 
for this is the meaning of the Greek word, proud 
and boastful of their formal righteousness. " Be 
not as these," said the Master; " hypocrites, of a 
sad countenance: for they disfigure their faces, 
that they may be seen of men to fast." " They 
have their reward." They are seen, recorded 
and pitied for their ignorance, or condemned for 
their superstition. 

Yet while Jesus condemned the present prac- 
tice of fasting, we believe it is likewise true that 
he commended the underlying principle of fast- 
ing. " When ye fast," implies that men are to- 

7 I Cor. vi, 19-20. 

8 I Cor. iii, 17. 



i 9 2 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

day to have that principle in their service and 
worship which underlies the fast, and which con- 
stitutes its true worth, the principle of self-de- 
nial. This principle of unselfishness, and self- 
denial underlies the observance of all true reli- 
gion. It is a principle that has been recognized 
by the spiritual-minded in every age of the 
world's history. Nowhere does it find stronger 
endorsement nor clearer exposition than in the 
fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. In that passage, 9 
as in these words of Jesus, the affliction of the 
soul, the disfigurement of the body, the external 
observances of contrition and humiliation, how- 
ever studied or artistic, are condemned as not ac- 
ceptable unto the Lord. In short, these are not 
to be called a fast at all. But if the servant of 
God would have a fast that is pleasing and ac- 
ceptable to God, let him loose the bands of wick- 
edness, remove the burden from the over-loaded, 
feed the hungry, house the poor, cover the naked, 
be a brother to those who are related to you by 
the ties of blood and to those who are related 
to you by the bonds of a common humanity. This 
will call for all the self-denial and all the self- 
sacrifice of which you are capable, and this will 
meet with the approval and blessing of God, for 
then " shall thy righteousness go before thee and 

9 Isa. lviii, 5-8. 



LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 193 

the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward." 
Such a principle of fasting has been needed and 
of service in every age of the race's history, and, 
is needed to-day as much as ever it was. 

The principle of fasting, then, stated in its larg- 
est form, which Christ here inculcates, is this, that 
wherever the lower in life is made subservient 
to the higher, there is the true idea of fasting. 
This was the principle that actuated Daniel and 
the three Israelitish children in their living in 
Babylon; this was the principle that actuated 
Abraham to give up the pasture plains and the 
wells of water to the more selfish Lot; this was 
the ideal which strengthened the Apostle Paul to 
fight and keep his body under and made him the 
great apostle of sacrificing service, that he might 
be of use to his brethren. 

Says Jesus, " Let a man deny himself " that 
self which is so obtrusive, which so tends to as- 
sert its claims, which is so willing to eat all the 
fat and drink all the sweet, while the brother is 
in want. 

This is the principle which applies to a man's 
time — that gift of God, which while given in 
abundance is yet given in limitation. This is the 
principle which says to the naturally selfish man, 
and yet to the right-minded man: Some of your 
time belongs to God, and must be dedicated to 



i 9 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

Him in the service of the church, the prayer- 
meeting, and the culture of the soul, that the rest 
of your time may be rightly used. This is the 
principle which teaches the man that of life's 
" goods " — some are to be given to the service 
of his fellows and to the advancement of the king- 
dom. This is the principle which lays its just 
tax on a man's powers and talents, place and pos- 
session, that the brother may be helped, his own 
life enriched and his God glorified. 

And further, says Jesus, " Let the one who 
lives according to this divine principle of self- 
denial, see that he exercises it in the right spirit." 
Not unwillingly nor grudgingly, not with a sad 
countenance and a disfigured face, as though he 
were doing an unwelcome thing, but with an an- 
ointed head and a face that is washed and beauti- 
fied with a smile. Let him not exercise this serv- 
ice in a fearful and superstitious manner, because 
of the wrath of God, but in an intelligent, ap- 
preciative, happy, spiritual, " in secret " way, be- 
cause of the love of God. Then comes that 
promise, containing the incentive and the reward 
of practicing such a righteousness, that promise 
sealed by the very character of God and set, I 
am sure, in a smile on the Savior's face as he 
spake it, " Thy Father shall see, and thy Father 
shall reward thee." " Then shall thy light break 



LIVE THE SELF-DENYING LIFE 195 

forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring 
forth speedily." " And the Lord shall guide thee 
continually and satisfy thy soul in drought, and 
make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a 
watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose 
waters fail not." 10 

10 Isa. lviii, 8 and n. 



CHAPTER XII 

LIVE FREE FROM THE BONDAGE OF GOLD 
Matt, vi, 19-21 

THE Divine Physician has thus far been con- 
sidering the heavenly hygiene: he has been 
speaking of the soul in health, and laying down 
those rules of life which make for well-being — 
that state of life termed blessedness, to which he 
calls our attention in his opening words. Now he 
turns from this theme, with logical sequence, to 
an exhibition of those things which threaten the 
spiritual well being, and imperil the health of the 
" man within ".; and first he calls attention to that 
disease of mankind, that destruction of blessed- 
ness, which arises from an inordinate love of 
gold, the source of so many of life's ills, from 
the earliest days. The whole business of life 
could not be better described than in the figure 
of the text which our Instructor here uses — 
treasure hunting. Hunting and laying up treas- 
ure is what men do, what they want $0 do, and 
what they ought to do. This is one great busi- 
ness of life. 

It is instinctive in mankind to lay up treasure. 
196 



FREE FROM BONDAGE OF GOLD 197 

To-day psychology is turning its observant eye 
to the more careful study of the mind in its early 
stages; it is making a profitable study of child 
life. If in this instance we turn our thought to 
the child life, what do we find? Sometime, when 
the opportunity is favorable, ask your young son 
of eight to twelve years of age, to show you the 
treasures of his pocket, and what are you sure 
to find? Tops and strings and screws and things 

— and every conceivable article. I know on one 
such occasion, among other valuable treasures, 
the body of a dead mouse was produced as worth 
preserving (I use the term advisedly). Go into 
a young lad's room and what do you find? — a 
veritable storehouse of treasures — here a collec- 
tion of birds' eggs, there a gathering of stones — 
yonder the stamp album, etc., etc. Professor 
James tells us in his Psychology that out of a 
hundred students whom he had questioned only 
four or five had never collected anything, and 
Professor G. S. Hall says that in a similar inves- 
tigation " only nineteen out of two hundred and 
twenty-nine had made no collections." If we are 
to trust to the testimony of impartial witnesses 

— treasure hunting and treasure storing is nat- 
ural to the human species. This quality in man 
is instinctive and is also found among the animals 
of a lower order — as witness the propensities 



198 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

of the raven, the jack-daw, the wood-rat, which 
lay up treasures, not for food or use, but simply 
because of natural instinct. 

Moreover, this is an occupation that is most 
congenial to men; listen to the conversation of 
the average man with his fellows on street car 
or train and is not the burden of it, " To-day or 
to-morrow we will go into such a city, and con- 
tinue there a year, and buy and sell, and get 
gain"? Yes, these are the things which interest, 
occupy, absorb and satisfy the lives of most of 
mankind. 

Moreover, to hunt treasure is what men ought 
to do ; this is a natural, sensible, wise and highly 
moral obligation. We are in this world for a 
purpose — for this purpose ; inactivity is not 
right, idleness is immoral. The underlying 
teaching of " take the talent from him and give 
it to him that hath ten " is that only he who uses 
and increases what he has, really possesses any- 
thing or is truly fulfilling his work in life. We 
ought to grow richer as we live, if life has any 
meaning at all. 

" Oh! " says the listener, " we are so glad to 
hear it; then humanity is all right, for as I go 
about the earth and observe men, I find that this 
is just what they are doing." 

"Hold! not so fast. Suppose you should see 



FREE FROM BONDAGE OF GOLD 199 

grown men making the business of life the gath- 
ering up of birds' eggs, of piles of stones, of old 
rubbish, that surely would not be the purpose of 
life?" And this is just what men have done 
and are doing, literally; for this instinct of ac- 
quisitiveness has strange illustration. Again, re- 
verting for illustration to Professor James, he 
writes, " Lately in a Massachusetts town there 
died a miser who principally hoarded newspapers. 
These had ended by so filling the rooms of his 
good-sized house from floor to ceiling that his 
living-space was restricted to a few narrow chan- 
nels between them." And of another instance he 
records, " He gathered old newspapers, wrap- 
ping-paper, incapacitated umbrellas, canes, pieces 
of common wire, cast-off clothing, empty barrels, 
pieces of iron, battered tinware, fractured pots 
and bushels of such miscellany as is to be found 
only at the city dump." There was the instinct, 
the activity, the work, but behold the treasure ! 
The trouble is not with the instinct, nor the am- 
bition, nor the desire — but with the treasure. 
The instinct was right, the desire was right — the 
activity was right — but its direction and expres- 
sion that were wrong. 

Now Jesus classes the collecting of gold — the 
treasure-hunting and treasure-storing of goods 
and wealth, among the rubbish heap of life's good 



200 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

things, and therefore he here warns men to live 
free from the bondage of this habit. And is it 
not true to-day, that most men's lives are in slav- 
ery to the getting of gold? Is not this the spirit 
of our age? Professor James in his "Varieties 
of Religious Experience," in recognizing the 
worth of certain ascetic practices, among others 
praises the practice of poverty. Says he, 
" Among us English-speaking peoples especially 
do the praises of poverty need once more to be 
boldly sung. We have grown literally afraid to 
be poor. . . . The desire to gain wealth and the 
fear to lose it are our chief breeders of cowardice 
and propagators of corruption. . . . There are 
thousands of conjunctures in which a wealthbound 
man must be a slave, whilst a man for whom 
poverty has no terrors becomes a freeman. . . . 
When we of the so-called better classes are scared 
as men were never scared in history at material 
ugliness and hardship; when we put off marriage 
until our house can be artistic, and quake at the 
thought of having a child without a bank account 
and doomed to manual labor, it is time for think- 
ing men to protest against so unmanly and irre- 
ligious a state of opinion. ... I recommend this 
matter to your serious pondering, for it is certain 
that the prevalent fear of poverty among the edu- 
cated classes is the worst moral disease from 



FREE FROM BONDAGE OF GOLD 201 

which our civilization suffers." 

To what extremes of moral iniquity and moral 
indifference will not men go in the fulfillment of 
this inordinate desire for wealth; food which is 
meant for the nourishment of the body will be 
adulterated with substances which starve and 
poison — drugs intended for the healing of the 
sick are adulterated with chemicals which hinder 
if they do not help such an end. 

" I must be rich," expresses the purpose of too 
many men. " Thou must be rich," is the burden 
of too much of our teaching to our children. 

What have not men done, what have they not 
endured, through the love of gold? It was the 
search for the treasure of the Indies that sent 
Columbus sailing westward, over the perilous At- 
lantic Ocean. It was the love of gold that in- 
spired Pizzaro to invade Peru; it was this same 
object that led Cortez to conquer Mexico, to the 
curse of its inhabitants, himself and his fol- 
lowers. The bones of the Forty-niners dotted 
the plains of the West they must cross in seeking 
the gold-fields of California in quest of gold. 
And the sacrifices, the sufferings and the perils 
which the Klondikers endured in their hunt for 
the yellow treasure are still fresh in our minds. 
There is no peril too great, no command too 
severe, no undertaking too hazardous, for that 



202 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

man who has been really seized by the lust of 
gold. The desire for riches is inordinate, the de- 
mand for wealth is insatiable, the means by which 
it is gotten is immaterial in far too many in- 
stances. What will not a man give up? what 
will he not cheerfully sacrifice, in obedience to this 
inordinate desire? 

It is not in this passage alone, but in other 
places also in the Gospel record that Jesus refers 
to this madness of mankind, to those who sacri- 
fice the better, the higher, the truer treasures of 
life — for the sake of their gold. How he char- 
acterizes and classifies the unwisdom of such in 
the parable of " the Rich Fool " ! Him whom 
men call only " a certain rich man," God calls, 
11 Thou fool." 

I must tell you the story of a poor fool I once 
saw, perhaps you have seen him too. I recol- 
lect the first time I saw him he was sitting on the 
floor in the corner of a great room playing as 
would a child. I remember as I approached the 
pitiable creature I was struck by his appearance; 
his face had a vacant, animal look, his eyes were 
jaundiced and yellow, and his coarse lips slob- 
bered and slavered as he played. Then my eye 
lighted on the playthings that were engaging his 
attention; these were bright pieces of metal, yel- 
low disks that had a clink and glint to them, and 



FREE FROM BONDAGE OF GOLD 203 

looked to me like coins. These he allowed to run 
through his fingers in a golden stream; he put 
them into his eyes and ears and stuffed them into 
his mouth; and then he would roll in the shining 
heap, seemingly desirous of enveloping himself 
in them, as you have seen a cat behave with its 
loved catnip. The case seemed all the sadder to 
me by contrast; because in another corner of this 
great room near a window sat an artist. I looked 
over his shoulder and saw that he was painting a 
scene from nature, a view of sky and shore, and 
the great ocean as it lay upon the bosom of the 
beach. And as this artist looked out upon the 
countenance of nature and sought to reproduce the 
beauty that rested there, his face was lightened, 
and I thought for the moment that he must have 
seen the soul of things. But the fool did not 
see because of the metal pieces he had put over 
his eyes. And there he sat, and played, seem- 
ingly content, not knowing that he had lost this 
field of pleasure, this " world of profit and de- 
light." In still another corner sat a musician 
playing on an organ. Under his magic touch, 
forth from this instrument came the sweetest har- 
monies. His face and bearing were such a con- 
trast to that of the fool's; his whole soul seemed 
to be suffused and thrilled with the flood of music 
that flowed through him; it was as though he 



2o 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

heard the heavenly music and the singing of the 
choir invisible; his face was lifted up and his look 
was away from earth. But the fool did not hear, 
for at this moment his ears were filled with his 
golden playthings. In the fourth corner of that 
great room sat one who was reading in a book. I 
glanced at the back of the book and saw its title 
was " the Word of God," and as he read, he 
mused, and as he mused his heart burned, and you 
could see the glow of his thoughts in his face, for 
his face shone as it had been the face of an angel; 
he had an attent look as though he heard voices, a 
rapt expression as though he saw visions, and, 
as I saw, I thought, " How like a god is man." 
But the fool did not heed for he was employed 
and absorbed in running the metal bits through 
his fingers, and counting them over as they fell. 

Yet sad as was this case — no one held him 
guilty, for he was born a fool. He himself was 
not to blame — just an ordinary fool — but I 
could not help thinking what if one should inten- 
tionally get himself into this condition, into the 
state of this driveling idiot — how could such a 
fool escape just blame. 

O, what heart aches, heart breaks, divisions in 
families, destruction of affection, sacrifices of the 
best in men, have been caused by those who 
sought to lay up for themselves treasures upon the 



FREE FROM BONDAGE OF GOLD 205 

earth. What a hard master is the lust of gold! 
And then I heard the ringing of " The Bells," the 
bells of conscience, the bells of accusation — and 
before me passed Mathias, his face in terror, as 
he beheld the Polish Jew he had murdered — 
murdered that he might have his gold. 

" Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon the 
earth," says the Master — for it not only makes 
a man a slave in the getting but it is the bondage 
of life to that man who has gotten. Behold the 
money lover's utter dependence on his wealth; he 
will give up everything really worth having to 
keep that gold which is not worth having. Was 
not this the teaching of Christ's experience with 
the rich young ruler. An earnest, honest, sin- 
cere, amiable, worthy young man, yet so bound 
by his golden chains that in sadness he turns away 
from the Lord of Life. 

They that trust in their riches will sacrifice 
friends, family affection, honor, fame, religion, 
soul and God, before they will lose their hold of 
that fatal treasure. 

And mark you here, the peril of this disease de- 
pends not on the matter of degree but on the kind. 
The man who loves and trusts in his hundred dol- 
lars is of like kind with the man who loves and 
trusts his millions. Each is bitten with the can- 
cer. Each is doomed to death — unless the 



2o6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

malefic growth be cut out. 

Is it not a striking and significant fact that that 
great image which Nebuchadnezzar made and set 
up in the plain of Dura and commanded men to 
worship was an image of Gold? Men were wor- 
shiping gold over two millenniums and a half ago, 
as men are worshiping the golden image to-day. 
Christ is here dealing with an inveterate menace 
to the well-being of man. 

I once knew a man, in our day, who had an 
idol carved of gold. He was accustomed to have 
it set in a temple called a " sky-scraper," in a great 
city, and in an holy-place called an office. There 
he would go every day to worship it with the 
strangest ceremonies and rites. He would bow 
down before this image sometimes forty times a 
day. He would make offerings to it of honor, 
honesty, manhood and truth. But, even stranger 
than this, once in a while he would go out into the 
streets of this great city and catching one of his 
friends by guile, he would bind him hand and 
foot with fair promises, and bring him into this 
holy place before the golden idol. Then he 
would bring out a sharp knife and slitting the 
throat of his best friend he would spill his blood 
on the floor, leaving the friend's children father- 
less and the friend's widow to mourn in a deso- 
late household. 



FREE FROM BONDAGE OF GOLD 207 

But even stranger than this — I have known 
him to take his own children and give them the 
slow poison of false ideals and teachings concern- 
ing gold, until on the last day, when the power- 
ful drug had worked to the killing point, he would 
put the innocent little one into a carriage, weak 
and dying, and would bring the child into this 
holy place to die, at the foot of the golden image; 
himself dancing about and rubbing his hands with 
glee. Then still more strange, the son or daugh- 
ter being dead, he would clothe himself in deep 
mourning, buy a dozen pocket handkerchiefs and 
go about the streets, alternately weeping and 
drying his eyes with one of the dozen handker- 
chiefs, that people might think him sane and sound 
of mind, overcome with natural grief and filled 
with real affection. These and a hundred more 
such foolish things he would do. The attention 
of the authorities was again and again called to 
his irrational acts; the blood stains on the floor of 
the sacrificial altar were shown; the dead bodies 
of his children were exhibited, and some sensible 
men said that he should really be put into an 
asylum. But the authorities only shook their 
heads and said, "No; his children are his own 
and he has a right to do with them as he pleases." 

" We are sorry about the friends, but business 
is business " (a phrase by which the authorities 



208 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

were wont to excuse themselves). "As for his 
worship of that golden idol — surely a man may- 
worship what he chooses." 

So the man was not adjudged of unsound, un- 
balanced or even abnormal mind, but was ap- 
plauded and accounted a shrewd and successful 
business man by the majority of his fellows. But 
the really wise judged him to be a fool, and their 
judgment was true, for on a certain day it was 
found that his madness had run to such a degree 
that he took his own life at the foot of the golden 
image which he had worshiped so long — and 
then all men knew why the wise had long since 
declared that he was only a rich fool. 

Is it not true to the facts, as Christ here inti- 
mates, that those who fix their hearts on gold are 
all their lives under the bondage of the fear of 
losing it? You have seen that worldly wealthy 
man sitting up o' nights, figuring, planning, suf- 
fering through the dread of coming to " the poor 
house." I believe it to be true, that that fabled 
" Wolf " of want, of which so many unpleasant 
things are said, more often thrusts his gaunt, wiz- 
ened, hungry visage into the mansion of the rich 
than into the door of the poor man's house. 

Now Jesus tells us here, in strongest terms, that 
that thing which those who trust in riches most 
dread, the loss of gold and goods, is that thing 



FREE FROM BONDAGE OF GOLD 209 

which is most certain to happen. Therefore, 
concludes he, do not put your trust in that which 
you must lose. His general teaching is that these 
riches contain within them the very elements of 
their own destruction — " moth and rust " wear 
and tear — depreciation and change — earthiness 
— evanescence, characterize them all. And when 
this disintegration has taken place your riches 
are gone. 

But besides the corruption which is of the very 
essence of these things — there are abstracting 
influences from without — "thieves break 
through and steal." Is this not true to every age 
of the world's history? We are mindful of that 
man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, 
and experienced such hard usage at the hands of 
thieves. 

Macaulay in his History of England, in that 
gem of all the chapters, " The State of England 
in 1685," has a section devoted to highwaymen. 
Says he, " Whatever might be the way in which a 
journey was performed, the travelers, unless they 
were numerous and well armed, ran considerable 
risk of being stopped and plundered. The 
mounted highwayman, a marauder known to our 
generation only from books, was to be found on 
every main road." 

Even those picturesque castles on the Rhine are 



2io THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

some of them only the stately abodes of the high- 
waymen of the river, who, to quote from one of 
John L. Stoddard's lectures, " Like vultures, from 
their eyries, watched the boats descend the stream, 
and if the tribute they demanded was refused 
them, they promptly attacked the crew and secured 
the cargo for themselves." 

And even to-day, while we can boast of but 
few of the bold, dramatic highwaymen of the 
earlier times, we have our artistic and thorough- 
going bands of thieves, who rob legally, quietly 
and by wholesale. Let no one say that we have 
no Robber Barons, and that thieves do not break 
through and steal, while the trusts are among us 
to throttle the life out smaller industries, and bear 
away our savings in a gentleman-like way, and ac- 
cording to law. The motto of the wise and witty 
wag, " Blessed are they who have nothing, for 
they cannot lose it," testifies that even to-day 
" thieves break through and steal." 

Though a man might be so shrewd, so strong 
or so fortunate as to escape all of these marauders, 
does the Christ teach us, in that parable of the 
Rich Fool, illustrative of the very text on which 
he is here speaking, that this does not mean that 
he has escaped the inevitable penalty of those 
who trust in riches. For, though one might have 
traversed all life's roads, sailed down all its 



FREE FROM BONDAGE OF GOLD 211 

rivers, braved its perils of robbers, yet, when 
it comes to the crossing of that last, narrow, 
dark, swift-flowing stream — there meets us on 
its brink the robber " Death " — who quietly com- 
mands, " Leave all your goods on the hither 
side," and him all men obey. " Then whose 
shall those things be?" How poor indeed is 
that man who enters eternity, the necessities of 
heaven bartered for gold, and the gold taken 
from him at its gates? What provision has he 
left for the long journey of eternity? 

But our Life's Teacher is not so poor a psychol- 
ogist, so impractical an instructor, as to 
merely arrest and stun us with a negative com- 
mand. He knows that the true law of a wise in- 
hibition is to give a new, a right direction, to 
man's instinctive impulses. Therefore follows 
the command, the complement of the other, " But 
lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven." Seek 
as your golden store, the heavenlies — those 
things which lie in the spiritual, the unseen and 
therefore in the sphere of the eternal. Make 
your " goods " to be those of the heart, the mind, 
the soul; patience, lowliness, kindness, is such a 
casket of jewels; purity, peaceableness, service, is 
such a mine of treasure. What a blessed thought, 
what a satisfying sight, what a worthy occupa- 
tion, to behold one day by day adding to the 



212 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

richer self. What a noble work for the man! 
A new country conquered, a new waste tract or 
savage tribe in self subjugated and brought under 
right and reasonable action. Period after period 
of life, to find a new gem, a new treasure, a bright 
nugget of real gold, added to the riches of the 
heart life. Then to realize that these are treas- 
ures that can never perish, can never depreciate 
in value ! We can readily conceive of a time 
when clothes and fashion no longer interest; we 
can picture a moment when food and well stored 
barns cease to be of worth or service; we can 
imagine conditions when gold is no longer valu- 
able; but we cannot conceive of the moment, nor 
dream of the time, when the kingdom of heaven, 
when God and His truth, His promises, His love, 
His fatherly relation to men, would not make 
lighter sorrow, brighter joy, and richer the soul 
who has them. These are the " goods " of life, 
which have no corrupting quality within, which 
are not in peril of being stolen from without; 
these are the spiritual riches which the more they 
are spent the more they increase. 

Then the Master concludes, with that pregnant 
sentence which gives the reason of it all: " For 
where thy treasure is there will thy heart be also." 
The heart is the man — and the man is the con- 
cern of all of our Master's teaching. 



CHAPTER XIII 

LIVE FREE FROM THE BONDAGE OF 
DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 

Matt, vi, 22-24 

THERE are some who have thought that 
this passage is interpolated, out of order, un- 
related and meaningless. But I think that a de- 
gree of study will reveal to us the fact that it is 
necessary, in place, related to the context and 
very significant in its meaning. 

It is true that the passage faces two ways, and 
may be connected logically with either the pre- 
ceding or the following passages; it certainly looks 
backward and is an illustration of what has just 
been said, and it looks forward by way of intro- 
duction to what is about to be said. It is, in 
short, the connecting link between the thought, 
" Where your treasure is there will your heart 
be also," and the approaching thought, " Be not 
anxious for your life," etc. 

It is the New Testament echo of that appeal 

made on Carmel's height, that afternoon so many 

centuries before, when the prophet Elijah called 

his trembling auditors to a decision with the 

213 



2i 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

words, " How long will ye go limping between 
two opinions — if the Lord be God follow him ; 
but if Baal be god then follow him." * It is the 
Master's reiteration of those principles insisted on 
by the prophets in every stage of Israel's history 
■ — singleness of purpose, fixity of choice — one- 
ness of service. 

Israel's great sin, the sin which weakened her 
national life, the sin which carried her away into 
the Babylonian captivity, was vacillation, double- 
mindedness, half-heartedness, the fruitless and 
fatal attempt to serve two masters. 

This same lesson Jesus seeks to impress, in this 
instance, by proving the impossibility of any other 
course. This he does by means of the connected 
syllogism known in logic . as the enthymeme. 
" This is peculiarly the argument of the orator. 
Jesus Christ, who spoke as never man spake, fre- 
quently employed this contracted syllogistic form. 
The Beatitudes, recorded in the fifth chapter of 
St. Matthew are beautiful examples." 2 He re- 
sorts to the reductio ad absurdum — he who 
serves more than one master really serves no 
master, and reaches the conclusion, " Ye cannot 
serve God and Mammon " — therefore serve 
God. 

1 1 Kings xviii, 21. 

2 " How to Attract and Hold an Audience," by J. Benjamin 
Esenwein, 1902. 



DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 2 1 5 

The proposition he seeks to establish is this — 
the folly and futility of double-mindedness — the 
fatality of having two supreme purposes. The 
passage throughout is a keen piece of reasoning 
and requires close attention and sharp thinking to 
follow it. 

The argument is introduced and illustrated and 
the points to be established are stated, by means 
of the figure of the eye, which teaches that the 
supreme purpose of the life is the master of the 
life. " The lamp or light of the body is the eye," 
etc. 

Whatever be the origin of the eye, it is a won- 
derful organ and wonderfully placed. Whether 
the eye were created forthwith at the creation of 
man, or whether the eye has been developed and 
called out by the influence of the light rays on some 
more sensitive part of man's body, makes little 
difference. We are glad that the eye has ap- 
peared and glad that it has appeared just where it 
is, for to the function and to the position of the 
eye man is greatly indebted every day of his life. 
The eye from its power of vision contributes to 
life, profit, pleasure and power — and from its 
position it reveals peril, discloses advantages, 
guides the way and is the lamp of the entire man. 
It is an absolute deprivation to be blind; it is a 
relative deprivation to have a defective and im- 



2i6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

perfect sight. A man could not wish such an in- 
firmity for himself, and a man would be rid of 
such an infirmity if he could. 

Now the eye is, to one who sees thoughts in 
things, an apt physical illustration of a moral and 
spiritual truth; it is the symbol of foresight and 
purpose. The man whose eye is single and sound 
knows where he is going and walks a direct, sure 
course. The man whose eye is double, imper- 
fect, walks in ignorance, and goes an uncertain, 
tortuous and dangerous way. Says the apostle 
James, " A double minded man is unstable in all 
his ways." 3 And Peter writes concerning those 
who lack the vision of spiritual things, " But he 
that lacketh these things is blind and short- 
sighted " (myopic is the exact word). 4 As we 
catch these thoughts, spontaneously before our 
minds passes the figure of a drunken man, who 
sees double, uncertainly, and goes reeling and 
staggering along his crooked and perilous road. 

Now apply this figure taken from the physical 
to the mental and moral way of life, and we imme- 
diately apprehend the teaching of the passage: 
that man who has a clear, single, supreme pur- 
pose in life is the man who goes directly and 
surely to the goal, but the man who has a double 

3 James i, 8. 

4 II Peter i, 9. 



DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 2 1 7 

purpose is the man who walks uncertainly and 
reaches — nowhere. In other words, life's pur- 
pose is life's lamp. With this striking introduc- 
tion, the question is fairly before us. Turn now 
to the line of reasoning, and it is as follows : No 
man can serve two masters — no man can have 
two supreme purposes in life. 

There is good reason and need for the Master 
to bring this truth before the minds of his hearers 
because there seems to be an inclination and a be- 
lief, evidenced by men's actions, that more than 
one supreme purpose in life is possible and that a 
man can serve two Masters. This attempt to 
serve more than one Master was true to the times 
long before Christ. The heathen prophet Balaam 
is an instance of such a man. Balaam is spoken of 
in the Scripture record as " the man whose eyes 
are open," the man " which heard the words of 
God, which saw the vision of the Almighty, fall- 
ing into a trance, but having his eyes open." 5 Of 
him writes Dean Stanley, " In his career is seen 
that recognition of divine inspiration outside the 
chosen people, which the narrowness of modern 
times has been so eager to deny, but which the 
Scriptures are always ready to acknowledge, and, 
by acknowledging, admit within the pale of the 
teachers of the universal church, the higher spirits 

5 Numbers xxiv, 3-4. 



218 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

of every age and of every nation." 6 In Balaam 
we have the case of a man who had a vision of 
God, a man who knew the right, a man who de- 
sired to speak the truth for God, until that day 
when Balak the son of Zippor came with his 
princes and with his presents and set before 
Balaam a new purpose — then his mind was di- 
vided, his vision was clouded, his way was un- 
certain and his end was pitiable. He attempted 
the impossible task of reconciling the service of 
God with the service of Mammon — and he 
failed. 

Come down in the history of the Jews until the 
times of the kings and the divided empire, and 
in King Ahaz we have another instance of a like 
attempt. King Ahaz worshiped God, but he 
made his sons pass through the fire to Molech; 
he trusted in Jehovah but put himself under the 
base protection of Tiglath-Pilezer, king of Assy- 
ria; he sacrificed on the altar of the temple 
of Jehovah, but " he saw an altar that was at 
Damascus " and he sent home a copy of it for his 
workmen to build him one like it, and said, " The 
brazen altar shall be for me to inquire by." His 
life was guided by a divided purpose, and so was 
a failure. As an evidence of this writes Dean 
Milman: " In short, had not his death relieved 

6 " History of the Jewish Church," A. P. Stanley. 



DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 219 

his people, Jerusalem seemed rapidly following 
the example, and hastening towards the fate of 
Samaria." It was just such impossible and fatal 
principles that Hosea reproved, against these 
that Isaiah preached, these that Micah con- 
demned, and because of these Jeremiah lamented. 
Come down to the years after Christ, and do 
we not still find men attempting this impossible 
way? We need not wait long for the entrance of 
witnesses to the truth of the statement — Car- 
dinal Wolsey pushes his way through the crowd 
of those ready to testify and takes the stand. 
Here was a man great with his master, Henry the 
Eighth; high in favor; like Joseph, second ruler 
in the kingdom; really the pope of England. He 
was a man whose life was guided by a double 
purpose — he sought to serve God and his of- 
fice, and he sought to serve the king and his in- 
terests. That he served the king, he who runs 
may read; that he purposed serving God, the his- 
torian Green shows us in this sentence, " Were the 
marriage once made, he told the French ambassa- 
dor, and a male heir born to the realm, he would 
withdraw from state affairs and serve God 
for the rest of his life." Let Wolsey's death-bed 
testimony witness to the worth of a double serv- 
ice. Says he, at that moment when we may 
count men ready to speak the truth, " Had I but 



220 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

served God as diligently as I have served the king, 
He would not have given me over in my gray 
hairs. But this is my due reward for my pains 
and study, not regarding my service to God, but 
only my duty to my prince." Even as astute and 
strong a man as Wolsey could not serve two 
masters. 

Come down to this present moment, and after 
so many years of trial and so many instances of 
failure do we not find men attempting the same 
thing? Men who divide things into secular and 
sacred, time into secular and sacred, service into 
secular and sacred, are seeking to serve two mas- 
ters — the man who says to himself, as a lawyer 
once said to me, " I propose to make my pile, ac- 
cording to the way of the world, and then I pro- 
pose to serve God according to the way of the 
Word." Most men are not as honest in their 
admission of the fact — but far too many are as 
diligent in their twofold service. 

The man who is a believer in Jesus and yet not 
a confessor and follower of him, is making the 
futile attempt to serve two masters, is seeking to 
hold God in one hand and Mammon in the other, 
with the chances largely in favor of Mammon 
gaining occupancy of the other hand. He who 
lives after this plan walks in the night. " If 
thine eye be double, thy whole body shall be full 



DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 221 

of darkness." 

From this point Jesus proceeds with the rea- 
soning and exhibits the unwisdom of such a 
course. It is unwise because it is impossible. 
" Ye cannot," is the categorical way in which he 
puts the matter. 

We have heard of a Frenchman who, replying 
to his valet who had used the word " can't " in 
his hearing, said, " Never use that odious and dis- 
couraging word in my presence again." 

Now while one must be cautious in declaring 
what is impossible, yet one can certainly affirm 
that the contradictory is impossible; and to have 
two supreme purposes in life is contradictory. It 
is a contradiction in terms. Moreover, it is a 
contradiction in fact; man's mind and man's soul 
can no more go in two opposite directions at the 
same time than can his body. His soul is so con- 
stituted that it is a unit and cannot be divided 
against itself. He thinks, wills and feels as one, 
and the activity of one faculty involves the activity 
of the whole man. The very limitations of 
choice make such a course impossible. The 
choice of one object is the rejection of others, the 
choice of one purpose is the rejection of others, 
the choice of one master is the rejection of all 
others. 

Not only is this course morally impossible, 



222 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

but it is actually impracticable, says our Teacher, 
because, if a man could have two masters, " He 
will either love the one and hate the other," which 
means that a man's love is divided — a divided 
love is an imperfect love — and an imperfect love, 
half-hearted love, is no love at all. 

It is this divided love which has blighted, black- 
ened and destroyed so many families and homes 
of earth. And with respect to a man's relation 
to his God, a divided love is against the very 
spirit of all law and command, for it is written, 
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy 
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy 
mind, and with all thy strength." To have two 
masters is to divide life's service; " He will hold 
to the one, and despise (disregard) the other," 
and a divided service is an imperfect service. 

The man who makes his supreme purpose in life 
riches, cannot make it God and his kingdom at 
the same time. 

The service of pleasure and knowledge are not 
infrequently incompatible. Popularity and char- 
acter are often inconsistent. On the counters of 
this world a man is offered a great variety of 
" goods," and the business of this life is to learn 
to choose the best among them. What God de- 
mands of his subjects is a perfect, whole-hearted 
service, and " Thou shalt have no other gods be- 



DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 223 

fore me " is the sine qua non to real religion. 

From these arguments, and from a glance at 
man and the world of men, is it not easy to infer 
that such a course is fatal to the man himself? 
It is destructive of his peace, his power and his 
efficiency. To have two masters is to be torn 
asunder, to be in a condition of mental unbalance, 
to be in continual debate with one's self; it results 
in instability, vacillation, mental distress and dis- 
quiet. Now these things are destructive of pur- 
pose, whose chief characteristic is fixity, certainty 
and unchangeableness. Therefore, the man who 
has more than one purpose is the man who has no 
purpose. His life is like a ship, whose compass 
is broken, sailing in the night over a troubled 
sea, under a sky wherein there is no fixed star, no 
point by which to direct the course. 

Such a plan of life is fatal to a man with re- 
lation to his fellows. What do practical men 
think of the man who talks one way and works 
another — of the man who is double-faced, 
double-minded, double-purposed — of that person 
whose relation to truth depends not on principle 
but on convenience — of that person whose serv- 
ice depends not on character but on comfort? 
The qualities of manhood to-day demanded in 
every station and calling of life are dependable- 
ness, fidelity, fixity and oneness of purpose. This 



224 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

is what the king demands in his subjects; this is 
what the commander asks in the soldier; this is 
what the pupil needs in a teacher; this is what the 
employer requires in the employee ; it is what the 
mistress seeks in her housemaid; this is what the 
Church wants in its members. This is what God 
asks in his servants. God will not ask of a man 
in service less than a man asks of his fellows. 
Therefore, the conclusion is reached, " Ye cannot 
serve God and Mammon," for this is to serve 
two masters, which we have shown to be impos- 
sible; hence, have one Master and that one God. 

To have one Master is light and life. " If 
therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body is 
full of light." A single, clear purpose gives the 
entire man freedom from uncertainty and doubt. 
The goal fixed, the mind is left free as to the best 
course of attaining it. Whatever we may think 
of the worth or worthlessness of the goal, the 
Duke of Gloucester, afterwards Richard III of 
England, set for his ambition, one thing we must 
admit, he had unparalleled fixity of purpose and 
singleness of aim. This dwarfed and mighty will 
said, " My purpose is to sit on the throne of Eng- 
land," and from that purpose nothing could 
swerve him. If Lords Grey, Rivers, Hastings, 
nephews, brother, friends, any one or anything 
stood in the way, they must be swept aside. 



DOUBLE-MINDEDNESS 225 

There was no vacillation, no doubt; he hewed a 
straight course to a known end. Singleness of 
purpose settles a man's mind and lends direction 
and color to all his life. In settling the great 
purpose, all lesser and conflicting ends are settled. 
That young man who has settled for himself his 
work and calling in life, in the greater choice has 
set the course of many of his lesser choices. 
Now light is shed upon the various ways of 
study, habits, training — his whole life is filled 
with light. He goes no longer gropingly but 
sees and knows the way he takes. 

A singleness of purpose gives a man an or- 
dered, effective, positive life. Paul's great 
strength sprang from that principle upon which 
he ever acted, " This one thing I do." He was 
whole hearted as a follower of Judaism, and 
when his life purpose changed, he was body, soul 
and spirit, a follower of Christ. It was single- 
ness of purpose that made the life of Luther 
potent and effective. And John Brown of Os- 
sawatomie was a great factor in our national his- 
tory because he had determined by his life or by 
his death that the negro slaves must be freed. 
Have one master in your life is the teaching of 
life's greatest Master; have one master in your 
life is the teaching of the successes and failures of 
the lives of men. And by implication, Christ 



226 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

teaches us, let that Master be God. To have 
God and His kingdom as the great purpose of life, 
is commensurate with life's highest capabilities, 
and is in harmony with the highest ends of the 
universe. To be in right relation to the center of 
the circle is to be in right relation to every point 
in that circle; to be in right relation with the 
Heart of the Universe is to be in right relation 
with every part of the universe. 

This logical argument, this rational conclusion, 
is an introduction to that warning which the 
Savior is about to give, " Be not anxious for your 
life, what ye shall eat, what ye shall drink, and 
wherewithal ye shall be clothed." It is the 
foundation upon which the great life purpose shall 
be built, " Seek first the kingdom of God and his 
righteousness." 



CHAPTER XIV 

LIVE FREE FROM THE BONDAGE OF 

WORLDLY CARE 

Matt, vi, 25-34 

IF Jesus had never spoken any other words 
than those contained in this passage, if he had 
never taught the world any other lesson that 
this contained in this passage, his life had not been 
lived in vain. If men would only receive and be- 
lieve this truth as true, if they would only lay to 
their hearts and apply to their lives this needed, 
practical lesson, what a brighter, happier world 
we should live in. But in this very matter where 
men have the most need they have the least faith; 
where the Master can most help them, they are 
the least willing to follow his leading. 

The civil and economic conditions of the people 
of Palestine were not as favorable as they are at 
the present day. The people were not as well 
fed, as well clothed, as well housed, nor as well 
paid as they are to-day. " The peasant popula- 
tion of the Oriental world were then, and indeed, 
are generally now, the tenants at will of a 
327 



228 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

despot." 1 " The Jews were not a commercial 
people." " Manufactures were of the simplest 
kind. There was little or no machinery." 
" The chief vocation of the Jew was agriculture. 
But what modern farmer with his well-fenced 
farm, his bursting barns and granaries, his innum- 
erable plows and drills and reapers and mowers 
and threshers, in the midst of which he stands be- 
wildered by the very multiplicity of the conven- 
iences that are offered to him, would recognize 
the Jewish agriculturist?" "Military despo- 
tism, that cared nothing for the people except to 
gather from their hard-earned pittance all that 
rapacity could extort, subjected them to a most 
corrupt, oppressive and nefarious taxation." 

" The houses, in the case of the peasants, were 
wretched, one-roomed huts of mud; in the case of 
the wealthiest, were barren of the simplest neces- 
sities of modern life, though ornate with luxury." 

If there be anything in external conditions to 
free a man's life from fret and anxiety, people of 
this country and this day have less cause for 
worry than those who lived in the midst of the 
Palestinian civilization. And yet it was to a peo- 
ple thus circumstanced that Jesus speaks these 
stirring words. 

1 This and the following quotations from " Jesus of Nazareth, 
His Life and Teachings," by Lyman Abbott 



FREE FROM WORLDLY CARE 229 

This is Christ's "Don't Worry" sermon; it 
has never been surpassed; it has never been 
equaled; it is a practical talk by a practical 
man upon a practical theme. As we have 
intimated before, the foundation upon which 
this practical advice is made to rest — is in that 
principle he has just established — ye cannot have 
two masters, have but one — that one God, and 
show your trust and complete service to Him by 
freeing yourselves from the burden and bondage 
of worldly care and worry. 

The theme of the discourse, which runs like a 
golden thread from beginning to end, which is 
repeated formally three times, and which under- 
lies and colors every thought and word of this 
passage, is, " Be not anxious." And please to 
observe that this freedom from anxiety is to be 
in the sphere of the physical, the material, the 
temporal necessities, in that very region where 
men fear most and worry most. He is not now 
speaking of things divine and the world to come 
— but of this present time, and this present world, 
with its necessities, its wants, its need of food and 
drink and clothes — this very world which is 
round about us and in which we all must live. 

Jesus' order of statement of his teaching is 
logical, clear and forcible — in his opening words 
he declares that men are wont to worry about that 



2 3 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

about which they ought not to worry. What is 
the great source of worry to the lives of most 
persons? Was it not the same in that age as it is 
in this age? Is it not ever the same, could our 
average source of worry be more aptly, com- 
pactly, completely summed up, than in the word 
anxiety for the life, what we shall eat, what we 
shall drink and what we shall wear? These were 
the things that people were worrying about in 
the day when Jesus was on earth. Human na- 
ture in Palestine nineteen hundred years ago was 
much the same as human nature in America at 
the present day. The underlying life has changed 
but little. People worried about their meat and 
raiment then; people worry about their meat 
and raiment now. Jesus had experience with 
worrying people of this kind — he came near to 
the hearts of the people and he knew what 
troubled their lives. One day while he was talk- 
ing of the eternal riches and blessings, while he 
was making clear to his hearers God's care 
for them and His minute regard for the least 
things of their lives — one of the audience, whose 
thoughts had been far from the preacher, who had 
been dwelling on the injustice of a selfish brother, 
and who feared for his own material well-being, 
interrupted the sermon with the request, 
" Master, bid my brother divide the inheritance 



FREE FROM WORLDLY CARE 231 

with me." Yes, he knew what it was that troubled 
the hearts of men. He knew what it was to have 
an inattentive audience, a fearful follower, a 
faithless disciple, a doubting learner, all through 
the bondage of this world's care. And many a 
man of the present day is driven into the impos- 
sible task of striving to serve two masters through 
the fear and worry that his present temporal 
needs will not be cared for by the God whom he 
ought to serve with a whole heart and a single 
mind. 

Many a man has said to himself, or to his fel- 
lows, or his life says for him more plainly than 
words could express it, " Now when it comes to 
matters of religion, of Sundays, and things of soul 
and spirit, I will do as God would have me and 
serve only Him." " But when it comes to mat- 
ters of positions and possessions, I am going to do 
what the world does and what the times demand." 
" If a man is to get along in business, to accumu- 
late the gold, to have a competence and living, he 
must do just what the rest of the world does." 
" I propose to be just as shrewd, just as sharp, 
just as tricky, deceptive and dishonest in my oper- 
ations as the rest of them, and no more so." " If 
I am to gain my positions I must deal in false 
promises like the rest of the politicians; I must 
not be above taking my ' rake-off ' on the good 



232 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

things going; I must use the worldly way, if I am 
to get the worldly rewards." " I do not pro- 
pose to let my religion interfere with my busi- 
ness; business is one thing and religion is another, 
and I am not going to allow them to get mixed." 
" Don't talk to me about religious principles in 
business ; I'll tell you they don't go. A man must 
live, and he can't live unless he adapts himself to 
what the world dictates as the policy and method 
for the getting of gain." " When it comes to 
matters of character and spiritual culture, I'll ad- 
mit the truth, importance and worth of those prin- 
ciples and commands given in Scripture; these I 
propose to follow and attend to in higher matters, 
and at certain set intervals and stated times." 
" The church, the Sabbath, the prayer-meeting 
are places where I can attend to these things." 
" But I have ambitions, and if a man is to get 
ahead he must make his own way. ... I have 
desires and wants, a family to keep — mouths to 
be fed, children to be clothed and cared for, and 
if I don't look out for these no one will." " Men 
do certain things in business life, in social life, in 
political life, and unless you comply with these 
demands you are lost in the race." 

This is the way in which men are talking to- 
day. This is what is called wise, sound, worldly, 
practical wisdom, and it has the approval of 



FREE FROM WORLDLY CARE 233 

many, many lives. 

But according to Jesus' standard, what is the 
man who follows this counsel attempting to do? 
He virtually says, to put the matter plainly, I'll 
serve both God and Mammon. I believe each 
has his sphere, his duties, his commands, and each 
must be recognized. 

What is the result? That a man is trying to 
do that which Christ has just shown to be the im- 
possible. 

What is it that oftenest leads men to this 
course of action? Is it not the over anxiety, lest 
they or theirs be not fed, clothed, housed, and 
cared for? This is the reason that nine-tenths of 
the dishonest men deal dishonestly, not because 
they love dishonesty itself — they would be freed 
from it if they could. This is the reason that 
men live the double life and have only a formal 
service toward God while they have a whole heart 
service toward the world. Because they are anx- 
ious, because they know the need, because they 
have a family and multiplied wants every day, be- 
cause they are not sure that God will care for 
them. Where are the necessary things coming 
from? The world answers, from yourself, and 
must be won according to the worldly way. 

This is a grave question, a difficult situation, 
a hard problem — there is not a man who lives 



234 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

and who has others dependent on him who has not 
been brought face to face with the grim facts, and 
who has not felt the burden of their care. 

Now this is the very fear Christ seeks to 
allay; it is the very problem he seeks to solve, it 
is the very anxiety he seeks to remove. 

His teaching and reiteration and command and 
reasoning to his disciples, to affirm, is to prove, 
to persuade them, to convince them, to make sure 
the contrary — to wit, that God does care, God 
does provide, eat, drink, clothes, material, tempo- 
ral " creature comforts " and necessities. And 
this He does in a very connected, potent line of 
argument. 

Please to observe, " Be not anxious " is a com- 
mand of the Master, and it can and must be 
obeyed; " Be not anxious " is the counsel of our 
Leader and it can and must be followed; "Be 
not anxious " is the principle of the religion of 
Christ and it can and must be observed, if we are 
to be his children. And so he turns to the reasons 
for not worrying. 

We ought not to worry about these things, says 
our Christ, because real life is more than these 
things of food and drink. You may have these, 
all of these, and have them in abundance, but if 
you have not more than these, then you are not 
truly living. Do not the lives of the wealthy, 



FREE FROM WORLDLY CARE 235 

rich, world-filled and world-favored men and 
women, who are yet dissatisfied, discontented, un- 
happy and wretched, prove beyond a peradven- 
ture that " a man's life consisteth not in the 
abundance of the things that he possesseth"? 
Have we lived so short a time and have we lived 
with so little observation as not to have learned 
that happiness cometh not from without, not from 
the material, but from within and from the spirit- 
ual? If we have not learned that simple truth, 
turn to even the pagan philosophers and come to 
know the primer of happiness. 

Again, to be concerned chiefly with these 
things is to be concerned with the secondary 
things of life, and those lives which are chiefly 
concerned with secondary things are secondary 
lives, which, spelled large, mean — failures. 

Again, " Don't worry," because it is unneces- 
sary. There is no need for it. Christ here re- 
sorts to an a fortiori argument — if he cares for 
those who are inferior and of less importance than 
you how much the more will he care for you? 
"Where is your reason?" says the Master. 
Look at the birds — your Father feeds them, not 
their Father. He is not their Father, but He is 
your Father, your heavenly Father. These birds 
are not His children but His creatures — they 
are merely the household pets, that must be looked 



236 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

after. Is it possible that a good father will feed 
the dog that lies by the fire in the house and will 
see his own children going hungry? This is the 
silly conclusion of those who reason that God 
does not care for you in material things. The 
argument is this: if God cares for that which is 
least, how can it be that He will not care for those 
that are so much more to Him, even his children? 
O ye of little faith, cannot ye see this? 

Please note Christ is not speaking here of Spir- 
itual wants and needs but of meat, drink, cloth- 
ing; just those necessities that cause the worry and 
anxiety of life. And in these matters we are the 
most fortunate of all earth's creatures, for we 
have a Father. 

The argument advances a step further, " Do 
not worry," because it is futile. There is no 
good use in it. Worry will not do you any good, 
in these very particulars in which you are so dis- 
tressed. God can and God does satisfy our 
needs, and only God. How many miracles of 
three years plenty and three years famine, how 
many miracles of Elijah and the widow's cruse of 
oil replenished, how many miracles of multiplica- 
tion of loaves and fishes to feed many thousands, 
how many weddings where water is changed into 
wine, how many promises that neither seed time 
nor harvest shall fail, do we need to teach us that 



FREE FROM WORLDLY CARE 237 

God can and does control the material forces of 
the world? The grape and the vine, the wheat 
and the wine, these things He can give, does give, 
and takes delight in giving. The very body and 
souls with their respective needs God has given us. 
We know that we have hunger and thirst, ma- 
terial needs and temporal wants; we know that we 
have reasons, affections, wills and appetences of 
our soul nature. Now if these needs be written 
in indelible letters in the very constitution of our 
natures, if we know that we have these needs, 
God knows it equally well and better than we. 

Mark you, Christ is not here speaking against 
work, not against legitimate activity and right use 
of the powers, privileges and faculties God has 
given us, but against anxiety and worry in their 
use. If these needs are to be satisfied, their satis- 
faction must come from God, and our fretting and 
fuming will not help one bit. " Which of you be- 
ing anxious, by your anxiety can add one cubit to 
his stature?" This is a little thing, isn't it? — 
a few inches on a man's body? " If then ye are 
not able to do that which is least, why are ye anx- 
ious concerning the rest?" 

The thought here is this, fret does nothing but 
wear away the faith and the life of the fretter, 
and unfit him for the plain work and duty of life. 
This is a rednctio ad absurdum. Keep your- 



23 8 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

selves calm and strong, trust your Father, and 
know that peace which the world cannot give nor 
take away. 

It is not our worry that brings the material 
things to satisfy our needs. Who gives the seed, 
who gives the soil? Who gives the command to 
nature to bring forth? Who fills our barns, our 
bins, our banks? Ourselves, with our fret and 
worry? Not much — God does. 

Paul may plant — Apollos may water, but God 
gives the increase. We piously thank God for 
His gifts at certain stated seasons and the rest of 
the time worry ourselves sick because we do not 
really believe that He has any connection with the 
world of things. Our very ignorance, depend- 
ence and inability drives us to the necessity of 
trusting Him from whom cometh every good gift 
and every perfect giving. We could see this as 
clearly as Christ did, were it not for our inborn 
faithlessness. 

Though worry cannot do any good, it certainly 
can do much harm. It is worry rather than work 
that is breaking and killing our people to-day. 
It is worry that is the cause of a whole host of 
physical, mental and moral ills. In a little work 
on the subject of " Worry " Dr. C. S. Kinney, 
who was for over twenty years in charge of the 
Middletown (New York) State Homeopathic 



FREE FROM WORLDLY CARE 239 

Hospital, speaking from a pathological stand- 
point, writes, " There is no faculty of the human 
mind that worry does not affect. There is no 
organ of the human body that it may not destroy. 
It dwarfs the intellect of the child, substitutes 
doubt for hope and turns the days of childhood 
into periods that are recalled in after years with 
sorrow and condemnation. In youth or middle 
age it foils or puts in jeopardy, every effort of the 
ambitious, makes failure expected and success a 
surprise. It is found smiling over the open grave 
of the suicide." " The ignorance of all that 
worry is able to accomplish in blocking human ef- 
forts is daily seen among the patients entering our 
state hospitals." In substance, he continues, 
worry is an open door to the worst ills of the 
mind; it leads to melancholia, mania, paranoia 
and paresis. " Worry is first and last a depres- 
sant. It may excite for a time but only as an irri- 
tant, followed by a depression of the organ ex- 
cited. It cannot coexist with perfect health." 
" It has never given bread to the hungry, or 
money to the needy. It never has helped a man 
and it will not help you." 

Still the argument of the Master advances a 
step further. " Don't worry," because this is un- 
filial and faithless. " For," says Christ, " after 
all these things do the nations seek." That is, 



2 4 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

this is the very spirit of worldliness, it is the spirit 
of the unconverted, the Fatherless, the unlight- 
ened; those who are in the darkness and igno- 
rance of sin and of unbelief are the worriers. 
Those who do not know that their Father is liv- 
ing, living in heaven and caring for them. It is 
the commonest, crudest, crudest form of faith- 
lessness. " Your heavenly Father knoweth that 
ye have need of these things." What things? 
These about which He has been speaking thus 
far; food, clothing, drink, material necessities. 
Now if He knows and if we know that He knows, 
what a shame to us it is, what unfilial, faithless 
conduct on our part to say to ourselves, " Well, 
if we are to have food and clothing and money, 
and the good things of this earth, we must get 
them for ourselves." " Our Father doesn't care 
about these things. He would as soon see his 
children die of hunger, or thirst, or want — He's 
so taken up with spiritual things that these ma- 
terial things are of no account." 

O short-sighted, illogical, faithless humanity, 
so to divide the universe, so to divide the 
Father, so to distress the soul. What would a 
good father of earth think of a child who con- 
stantly and persistently fretted and worried him- 
self over the thought, " When this meal is over, 
will I have another? When these clothes are 



FREE FROM WORLDLY CARE 241 

worn out, am I sure of getting others? Can I 
trust my father? " 

What must the Father in heaven think of those 
faithless children who continually ask themselves 
questions concerning Him? "Don't worry" to- 
day, says the Christ, for you have a Father who 
knows of your need for to-day, and will provide 
for it. And " Don't worry " about to-morrow. 
Three distinct times does Jesus use the prohibitive 
phrase, "Be not anxious"; the first time, con- 
cerning the things we worry about; the second, 
against worrying for to-day; the third time, 
against worrying for to-morrow. This last pro- 
hibition makes the principle still wider in its ap- 
plication. Do not worry about the future, with 
all the material necessities and wants that it shall 
bring. 

Where is located our chief worry? Is it about 
to-day? Look within yourself, look at your 
friends, listen to old Money-bags as he frets and 
stews. Is it to-day he's worrying about? Not 
at all, he has plenty in the bank, but he worries 
just the same. " For," says he, " one can never 
tell what may happen. Now look at the case of 
Mr.," etc., etc., etc., etc., And so he keeps himself 
in a pother. Now, Jesus says, keep yourselves 
free from this spirit of the world, this spirit of 
bondage. God knows the future, God provides 



242 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

for the future, He is still your Father, the same 
yesterday to-day and forever. If this discourse 
teaches anything, it teaches just this, that the sil- 
ver and the gold and the food and the fullness 
of the earth are at the disposal of the Lord God, 
He is our Father and we are His children and 
ought to trust Him. 

In this logical way, step by step, the Teacher 
leads his hearers from the prohibition to the com- 
mand ; from the things that they are so much con- 
cerned about, that ought not to concern them, to 
the things that they are not enough concerned 
about, which ought most to concern them. But 
" Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
ness." These things ought to be a man's first 
concern and his chief concern, because they are 
of the first and highest importance. Because con- 
cern in these matters is practical and effective. 
Most men think that they are here chiefly for 
food and drink and clothes — Christ says to them, 
" You are here for light and love and life and 
training and character — Not for the things ma- 
terial; these are necessary, while you are in the 
world, but for the things spiritual, for they are of 
the highest, most lasting worth — these are 
earth's treasures." And that man who seeks first 
God and His kingdom is in a position rightly to 
use, rightly to appreciate and rightly to enjoy all 



FREE FROM WORLDLY CARE 243 

the other good things of life. Then adds Jesus 
this promise, this law of the spiritual world, then 
" all these things shall be added unto you." All 
things needful shall be yours. The law of the 
world seems to be, care for the material first and 
then for the spiritual — the law of the Master is 
care for the spiritual first and then for the ma- 
terial. This promise seems to be conditional; 
this relation seems to be causal; this assurance 
seems to be certain. 

To whom does this high teaching apply — to 
the ill-provided for in material things, to those 
who have little of this world's goods? No! it 
applies to all who are his disciples, to all mankind 
it has a meaning, but observation and reason say 
to us, that it applies three times over to the pov- 
erty-stricken rich. To those who are well cared 
for, often living in luxury, who have tasted the 
value of possessions, and who have become so 
dependent on riches that they would rather have 
their lives go than their riches, for their riches is 
their real life. It applies to those who have in 
any measure experienced the richness of God's 
care and of God's givings, and will not recognize 
that these things belong to and have come from 
Him. 

This sermon may well.be called a mountain 
sermon because of the altitude of its moral and 



244 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

spiritual teachings. And these altitudes are 
reached in every part of it. Citizens of this 
kingdom are to be perfect; its laws are to be fol- 
lowed in spirit; its foundation is trust in God; and 
its children are not to worry. This teaching of 
a complete trust for material things represents an 
actuality but also an ideal. It is not easily at- 
tainable, yet most highly desirable. It is a great 
need of this present age. It is an ideal and a 
reality toward which we must make resolve, put 
forth effort, bring ourselves up to, in our daily 
living. 

Because it is an ideal, it is not an impossibility. 
Our true riches lie in an increase of our trust and 
confidence in the universal care of our Father 
which is in heaven. 

No greater act of betrayal, infidelity or unbe- 
lief can be perpetrated than to hold and to go 
about persuading people that God is not the Pro- 
vider and Dispenser of meat and drink and rai- 
ment, and all material necessities. 



CHAPTER XV 

LIVE FREE FROM THE BONDAGE OF 

CENSORIOUSNESS 

Matt, vii, 1-5 

THE office of a judge is a high and noble 
calling. There is no body of men, which 
conserves the laws, promotes the public well- 
being, establishes righteousness and right living, 
better than a just and faithful judiciary. " The 
office of a judge is always necessary, in the in- 
fancy and manhood of the world; it was a pri- 
maeval institution before any of the other insti- 
tutions or tribes or cities were much developed; 
it will continue to become equally important until 
men become perfectly just." x 

But as the office of a judge is a high office, so 
it has high requirements. " They must be re- 
moved as far as possible from all biases and 
warping influences. . . . They must have the 
spirit of the old prophet, who, when a king's mes- 
senger said to him, ' Behold now the words of 
the prophets declare good unto the king with one 
mouth; let thy word, I pray thee, be like the 

1 " Political Science," by T. D. Woolsey, Vol. II, p. 327. 
345 



246 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

word of one of them and speak that which is 
good,' replied, ' As the Lord liveth, what the 
Lord saith unto me, that will I speak.' " 2 They 
are, in fact, more immediately servants of God. 
than any other men who manage the affairs of a 
country. The man truly qualified to occupy the 
office of a judge needs to be richly qualified and 
nobly endowed. To judge justly he must be a 
man who has an appreciation of motives, a fa- 
miliarity with the circumstances of the case, a 
knowledge of the laws; the skill to make a true 
application of the legal principles, the grace to 
eliminate himself, and to pass judgment impar- 
tially, without fear or favor. And the responsi- 
bility resting upon a judge may well be denomi- 
nated awful. His is the exacting, difficult task 
to be just and yet merciful, to be true and yet 
kind, to condemn and yet to help. 

But in spite of these requirements and in the 
face of such a responsibility, is it not true that 
nine-tenths of humanity are seeking to climb to 
the woolsack? 

It is to this bold, thoughtless and dangerous 
ambition of men, this mad desire to seek an office 
to which they are not called, to covet a place for 
which they are not qualified, that our Master di- 
rects the present words. 

2 Ibid., p. 331. 



FREE FROM CENSORIOUSNESS 247 

In direct opposition to the natural tendency 
and the constant activity of mankind, Jesus places 
this categorical command, " Judge not that ye be 
not judged." Finally and forever the Master 
with one bold stroke sweeps from man the author- 
ity, without which the office of a judge cannot be 
rightly constituted. 

Says Blackstone, in his Commentaries, speak- 
ing of the Courts of England, " By our excellent 
constitution the sole executive power of the laws 
is vested in the person of the king, it will follow 
that all courts of justice, which are the medium 
by which he administers the laws, are derived 
from the power of the crown." 3 " For, whether 
created by act of parliament, or letters patent, 

the king's consent, is expressly or 

impliedly given." This principle applying 

to the kingdom of England likewise applies to 
the kingdom of heaven, and in the words of our 
text the King's own Son expressly denies any au- 
thority from the King himself, for an individual 
man to sit in judgment of his fellows. 

Indeed, the Christ who was so qualified to 
judge that he could say, " If I judge, my judg- 
ment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the 
Father that sent me," yet said, " I judge no 

a Chase's Blackstone, edition of 1888, p. 626. In quoting I 
have omitted certain irrelevant matters indicated by the dashes. 



248 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

man " ; 4 " For I came not to judge the world, 
but to save the world "; 5 and who is there who 
can find an instance in his life on earth where he 
passed judgment on his fellow men? Now that 
which he would not do himself, he could not 
allow his less qualified disciples to do. 

The command here given, " Judge not that ye 
be not judged," receives added weight and im- 
portance from a consideration of the one who ut- 
tered it. These words were spoken by one who 
knew men, knew life, understood the hearts of 
his fellows, by one who could make allowances, 
who saw clearly, judged righteously and spake 
truly and without fear. They were spoken by 
a man who looked upon the heart, and could give 
a right estimate of the lives that appeared be- 
fore him. This was the one who could say to 
the bold, confident and boastful Peter: " Simon, 
I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not"; 
" Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before 
that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest 
me." This is the one who could perceive and 
mark in a single word the truculent and cow- 
ardly character of Herod, " Go ye and tell that 
fox." This is the one who clearly knew that 
those Pharisees and rulers who should pass judg- 
ment upon him and condemn him to death, were 

4 Jno. viii, 15-16. 

5 Jno. xii, 47. 



FREE FROM CENSORIOUSNESS 249 

merely whited sepulchers filled with the bones of 
the' dead. This, too, is the one who could dis- 
cern in the woman of Samaria a woman of crass 
ignorance and acknowledged infamy, a heart that 
was tender and honest, and a jewel for the crown 
of the King. And yet this is the same one who 
says without qualification to those who will be 
his disciples, " Judge not." 

Now while this is a positive command, and of 
very wide scope, it is not spoken as a principle 
to guide governments, organizations, polities 
and rightly constituted authorities, for Jesus else- 
where recognizes the authority and place of 
Caesar in the world; but it is spoken to that vast 
mass of mankind who have become self-consti- 
tuted judges of the lives of their brethren. And 
never was a word of counsel more needed, for 
mankind is prone to separate, divide, classify, 
characterize and condemn its kind in walk and 
talk and work and life. 

Indeed, if I read and interpret this passage 
rightly that which is condemned is the spirit of 
criticism and censoriousness; those who view and 
judge the lives of their fellows not for the sake 
of warning, profit or lesson for themselves but 
for the sake of the condemnation of the brother. 
It does not mean that we shall not judge, weigh, 
measure, consider the words, works, and lives of 



2 5 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

the men about us that we may take knowledge of 
them either for profit or warning. The vicarious 
element of life runs through all forms of human 
existence. Doubtless many a man has saved his 
own ship from going to wrack by seeing the bones 
of his brother's craft, lying a grim warning on the 
perilous coast. Many a youth has been saved 
from bad company by seeing the degrading and 
destructive influences evil companionship has 
wrought upon good manners. Many a man has 
been saved from drink by witnessing the disgrace, 
shame and suffering that intemperance hath 
wrought in his unfortunate comrade. No! we 
are not told to walk with our eyes shut — but 
with our mouths shut; and while we may and 
must draw conclusions for ourselves from the ob- 
servation of the lives of others, we are not called 
upon to publish the results of our observation. 
The occupation of public censor and general 
critic is one of the most popular callings in the 
world. One reason for its popularity doubtless 
arises from the fact that it requires the least prep- 
aration and training for its accomplishment. 
Most lines of worthy work call for some school- 
ing or training, but the censorious person stands 
ready to pass upon the greatest works and the 
worthiest workmen without any knowledge of the 
subject or fitness for the task. Censoriousness 



FREE FROM CENSORIOUSNESS 251 

is a popular occupation because it is so easy of 
attainment, no capital is required for entrance to 
the ranks of the critic of others; no real qualities 
of manhood or womanhood. Would you be an 
artist or a musician, one needs patience; a sol- 
dier must have courage; a farmer must have in- 
dustry; a scholar, diligence; a politician, tact; a 
doctor, knowledge or skill — but to be a public 
critic all one needs is the brain of a rat and the 
tongue of a parrot and the work is done to per- 
fection. That this is the easiest work in the 
world is evidenced because it is the most followed 
and best accomplished by the indolent, the idler, 
the looker-on; these hold their august court in 
the corner grocery or at the meeting of the 
streets, and amid the plaudits of the ignorant 
audience the self-elected judge damns a deed or 
blasts a character with the readiness and indif- 
ference of the boy who crushes a bird's egg. 
Nothing is too sacred, nothing too secret, noth- 
ing too difficult, nothing too pure to escape, when 
once this habit of judging others has laid its fatal 
spell upon the individual. Now this is the habit 
and this the practice that the Master condemns 
and forbids in this passage. 

Avoid falling into this habit, says our great 
Teacher, for it is fatal to the self. " With what 
judgment ye judge ye shall be judged, and with 



252 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

what measure ye mete it shall be measured unto 
you." If we only could be made to realize that 
this is absolutely true, more of us would resign 
from the office of judge. And this is absolutely 
true. To judge another in word or deed is to 
give our own standard of word or deed. To 
measure another is to give our own measure. 
This is true in those simple, morally colorless 
judgments which we daily make. Here is one 
who says of a picture, " Isn't that fine, it suits 
me to a fraction." In this estimate the man has 
given the measure and quality of his own artistic 
taste. There is standing by, perhaps, a real 
artist, a man who knows pictures and the true 
canons of art; at once upon hearing this so 
frankly expressed opinion the artist knows the 
artistic measure of the man who has spoken; he 
judged himself in judging the picture. I knew 
of an instance where a house painter was paint- 
ing a house; the master of the house thinking 
that it might lend to the painter's pleasure to see 
a fine oil painting asked him to step in and view 
the portrait. The painter did so — and as he 
stood viewing it with critical eye, the owner said, 
" That picture cost five hundred dollars." 
"Goodness!" exclaimed the painter, "there's 
not ten dollars' worth of paint on it!" This 
man's idea of art was paint. Out of his own 



FREE FROM CENSORIOUSNESS 253 

words he was judged. 

Those who in higher things, judge of a man's 
character, his motives, his life, in this same act 
of judging reveal their own character, motives, 
principles of life. This consequence is certain 
and inevitable, the course of history has proven 
the truth of the Savior's words. Those unjust 
men who found Socrates guilty of perverting the 
youths and polluting the State and who condemned 
him to drink the hemlock, in their judgment of 
him judged themselves and have been condemned 
by their own condemnation. This was the 
thought that Socrates had when he said to those 
judges, " Be sure that if you put me to death, 
who am what I have told you that I am, you will 
do yourselves more harm than me." ..." And 
now I shall go hence, sentenced by you to death; 
and they will go hence, sentenced by truth to 
receive the penalty of wickedness and evil." 

In that Persian book, " The Gulistan " by 
Sa'di, the writer gives an incident illustrative of 
this same judgment of Christ. " A king ordered 
an innocent person to be put to death. The man 
said, ' Seek not your own hurt by venting any 
anger you may entertain against me.' The king 
asked, 'How?' He replied, 'The pain of this 
punishment will continue with me for a moment, 
but the sin of it will endure with you forever. 



254 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

The period of this life passes by like the wind 
of the desert. Joy and sorrow, beauty and de- 
formity, equally pass away. The tyrant vainly 
thought he did me an injury, but round his neck 
it clung and passed over me.' " 

Says Jesus, in his teaching, the office of judge 
is a work too perilous for a man to enter upon. 

He here intimates that in kind and degree as 
we judge and deal with our brethren so shall God 
deal with us. The measures with which we 
measure shall measure us, the scales in which 
we weigh the lives of our fellows shall be the 
same in which we are weighed. This is the plain 
meaning of the principle, " Blessed are the merci- 
ful for they shall obtain mercy." This is_ the 
lesson of the merciless servant of the parable re- 
corded in Matt, xviii, 21-35. If we fully real- 
ized that when we were passing upon the works, 
words and lives of our fellow beings we are really 
passing upon ourselves, how just, gentle and gen- 
erous would our judgments be, for every man is 
charitable and filled with excuses for his own 
shortcomings. 

Continues our Teacher, this practice of judg- 
ing the lives of others is unfair to the brother. 
" Why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy 
brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that 
is in thine own eye? " This is an altogether dis- 



FREE FROM CENSORIOUSNESS 255 

proportionate and unwarrantable proceeding. 
We are so anxious to remove the splinters, 
the motes, the little offenses, from the brother's 
life, that we fail to remember that there is 
a greater offense in our own lives. This term 
" mote " or " splinter " plainly points the com- 
mon field of criticism and censoriousness. It is 
not in the great principles of life that we com- 
monly judge the brother but in the little things, 
the smaller faults, the peccadillos. We are re- 
minded of the system formerly prevailing in some 
country schools and perhaps practiced in some 
places to-day, of appointing a monitor, usually 
the good boy, to observe and see when and how 
the scholars transgress the laws of the school. 
This worthy lad keeps his holy eye open for 
slight offenses, whispering, passing of notes,, 
copying lessons and the like; these offenses he 
notes and anon with joy reports to the authori- 
ties. The result is the cultivation of at least one 
prig and pious fraud within that schoolroom. It 
is the school monitor system as applied to the 
world against which Jesus is inveighing. No 
man, says he, has the right to assume this posi- 
tion, because every man has a beam, a whole log 
of wood, an entire block of offenses which com- 
pletely blind his own vision. Observe, this is a 
general declaration, and applies distributively to 



256 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

every man. Now the man who himself is thus 
disqualified is in no position to judge justly of 
his brother's slight offenses. What man is there 
who understands the motives, the circumstances 
of the life, the hereditary weaknesses of his 
brother? 

No man comprehends the life of another in the 
complete round of its circle — we see some little 
arc of the life as indicated in a word or a deed, 
but our geometry is not skilled enough to find 
the center of the circle from that arc. Here, 
for instance, is a lad who has gone astray, who 
is walking the wayward path. Listen to the 
judgment of that lad's life from the lips of out- 
siders; they unqualifiedly criticise and condemn 
him — they judge the thing in itself and unre- 
lated to the lad. Bring this same waywardness, 
these same facts, to the notice of a father or a 
mother of the boy, and either of these will judge 
with charity and with leniency — he knows, she 
knows, how much of the self is appearing in the 
child — and love sits on the bench of justice. 
Thank God, we are not to be judged by our fel- 
lows, nor yet by the world — but that judgment 
is to be given by a Father who knows the entire 
round of the life, and Love sits upon the judg- 
ment seat of the universe. 

Moreover, such criticism and judgment of our 



FREE FROM CENSORIOUSNESS 257 

brethren is an offense against the truth. It 
assumes that which is not true — a clear eye, a 
blameless life, a position of superiority in the one 
who would play the judge, a catalogue of qualities 
true of no mortal man. 

Instead of sitting in judgment on the conduct 
of others, our Savior points out something more 
important and pressing for us to do. In short, 
to hold to the figure of the eye, get busy with 
your own eyes. I presume there is no such thing 
as a physically perfect eye. Helmholz, who was 
familiar with this common fact, once said that he 
could easily conceive how the organ of the eye 
could be made a far more perfect instrument of 
sight than it is. Here the great Spiritual Oc- 
culist tells us, in unqualified terms, that there is 
no such thing as a spiritually perfect eye. There 
is a beam in the eye of every man, is his uncon- 
ditioned statement, and man's first and great 
business is to correct and perfect his own sight. 
Flis strong ironical way of putting it is, " Then 
shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out 
of thy brother's eye"; his plain implication is, 
" When thou dost see clearly, then thou shalt un- 
derstand that to assume such a position would be 
to become a hypocrite, and thou wilt leave the 
correction of the eyes of thy brethren to the care 
and correction of the Great Physician." Our na- 



2 5 8 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

tures are sinful and imperfect, we are all stricken 
with a moral blindness. Until this condition is 
removed we are in no position to judge our 
brethren, and when it is removed we will have 
no wish to judge them. 

History is filled with instances of those who re- 
vealed their moral blindness by sitting in judg- 
ment of their fellows. Witness the blindness of 
the Pharisees, who cast out the man born blind 
because he believed in the Physician who had 
healed him. Hear Christ's answer to these very 
Pharisees when they asked, " Are we blind 
also?" — asked sarcastically, asked with a sneer, 
asked in derision, but answered by the Christ, 
frankly, plainly, truly: "If ye were blind, ye 
should have no sin : but now ye say, we see ; there- 
fore your sin remaineth." 6 Behold the moral 
and spiritual blindness of those rulers of the 
Jews, who counted the best citizen of Palestine, 
the most worthy and useful member of their na- 
tion, as meriting crucifixion. And from that day 
to this how history has recorded and revealed the 
contemptible conceit and the stone-blindness of 
almost every court of religious inquiry, every in- 
quisition, and trial for faith that has sat upon a 
bench in condemnation of its brethren. We 
might make bold to say, that the roll call of the 

6 Jno. ix, 41. 



FREE FROM CENSORIOUSNESS 259 

honorable and faithful in the church to-day is 
the list of the condemned and outcast of yester- 
day. At all events, that every man has a beam 
in his eye and is in no position to rightly judge 
his neighbor, history without contradiction evi- 
dences. There has been only one without sin, 
only one with the spiritually perfect vision, only 
one fit to judge. What was his attitude toward 
a palpable, proven sinner? "And the scribes 
and the Pharisees brought unto him a woman 
taken in adultery," 7 and Jesus said, " He that is 
without sin among you, let him first cast a stone 
at her." And the only one without sin, the only 
one fit to cast the stone at her said, " Neither do 
I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." The 
plain teaching of this passage is that we are not 
to take such exact notice of our brother's fault, 
but to be more careful in noting our own faults. 
We are here taught the value of self-examination. 
Put over against, " With what judgment ye 
judge (another) ye shall be judged," the counsel 
of Paul, " For if we would judge ourselves, we 
should not be judged," 8 and we see the only safe 
course for a man. 

Says the moralist Seneca, " It is dangerous for 
a man too suddenly or too easily to believe him- 

7 Jno. viii, 3-11. 

8 I Cor. xi, 31. 



2 6o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

self. Wherefore let us examine, watch, observe 
and inspect our own hearts, for we ourselves are 
our own greatest flatterers. We should every 
night call ourselves to an account. Our vices will 
abate of themselves if they be brought every day 
to the shrift." 9 

What an absurd, inconsistent and wicked thing 
to see a man sitting in judgment of his fellows 
in those matters wherein he himself is guilty. 
" Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest 
thou not thyself? thou that preachest that a man 
should not steal, dost thou steal? thou that say- 
est that a man should not commit adultery, dost 
thou commit adultery? thou that abhorrest idols, 
dost thou commit sacrilege? thou that makest thy 
boast of the law, through breaking the law dis- 
honorest thou God? " 10 Answer this catechism 
with thy deeds and thy life, an thou canst; pass 
this examination, for the bench, if thou art able 
— then shalt thou be saved from that greatest of 
offenses, hypocrisy. " Woe unto you scribes and 
Pharisees, hypocrites," is an oft repeated warn- 
ing, which is meant to ring through the years of 
all time, a terror to the critical and the censori- 
ous, a doom to the self-elected judge. 

There is a corollary attaching to this princi- 

9 " The Morals of Seneca." 

10 Rom. ii, 21-23. 



FREE FROM CENSORIOUSNESS 261 

pie which the Master has just propounded; 
namely, be tolerant and charitable. As the Scotch 
say, every man must " dree his own weird," and, 
runs the Scripture, every soul must work out his 
own salvation; this is the privilege and this is 
the duty of living. The consequence is, as this 
is every man's individual right, so there is an ob- 
ligation on the part of every other not to inter- 
fere with but to help his brother in this life work. 
My prime duty is to attend to my own business 
and to have charity toward others who are seek- 
ing to do the same. 

The principle underlying the text, " Am I my 
brother's keeper? " we believe has been made to 
work overtime, and has resulted in our judging 
others and in our insisting in plucking the splin- 
ters from their eyes, when we had been better 
engaged in looking after our own lives. As 
much as we regret to acknowledge it, it is not 
altogether untrue, that Christian people and the 
Christian Church are particularly inclined toward 
fault-finding, criticism and censoriousness. 



CHAPTER XVI 

LIVE FOR THE BEST WITHIN YOU 
Matt, vii, 6 

JESUS was prone to utter hard sayings, to de- 
clare startling things, to teach the paradox- 
ical, to command the apparently impossible. 
Listen as he says that except a man hate his father 
and mother, brothers and sisters, wife and chil- 
dren, he cannot be his disciple; as he declares that 
a man must lose his life to save it; as he com- 
mands, "Be ye therefore perfect"; as he coun- 
sels, " Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon 
the earth." Surely these are hard sayings, para- 
doxes, startling teachings and commands seem- 
ingly impossible. 

These utterances are not void of meaning but 
the meaning does not appear upon the surface. 
It was doubtless his purpose that thought would 
reveal or time would disclose the hidden, fuller 
meaning of these teachings — as one must dig 
for gold, or dive for pearls, or work for anything 
that is truly worth having. 

It is safe to say that he did not intend to 
teach the esoteric or the mysterious — but he 



FOR THE BEST WITHIN YOU 263 

sought to present before men's minds plain and 
practical truths in forceful sentences. Such an 
utterance is this contained in the words, " Give 
not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast 
your pearls before swine," etc. 

The common interpretation men have given to 
this passage is that the Gospel truth is not to be 
given to the unappreciative, the unreceptive, the 
brutish, but is to be reserved for the chosen few 
who are able to understand it. With this inter- 
pretation we cannot agree, because it is too nar- 
row; it regards what may be a fruit of the text 
but does not go to the root of the text; again we 
cannot agree with it, because it seems to us to 
be opposed to the very spirit of the Gospel, for 
by its application no man would be accounted 
worthy to receive these high and heavenly truths 
— for no man is able rightly to appreciate them. 
Indeed, the great business of the Church is to go 
among the base, the dull, the unappreciative and 
to make them to see and to know and to under- 
stand. By this interpretation Jesus would never 
have come into the world — for surely the Pearl 
of heaven was despised, rejected and trampled 
under foot of men. 

But even if one does not go so far as to reject 
this common interpretation, yet this interpretation 
does not exhaust the full teaching here given. 



264 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

In this text there is a principle, broad, deep and 
far-reaching. So if we take the teaching as ap- 
plying to Life, for Life is the great theme of 
this entire discourse, the wider interpretation 
will include the narrower, and the more progres- 
sive view will embrace that which has been held. 

The great principle of this text is very plain — 
it is here stated in a negative form — put it into 
the positive form and it reads " Put things to 
their proper and appropriate uses like wise 
men " ! A place for everything and everything 
in its place is a principle that has its warrant and 
proof in the constitution of nature. In nature 
we observe that everything has a place, a use, a 
function and a right relation. From this arises 
the order and intelligibility of the world, and 
upon this depends the possibility and utility of 
science and the entire round of human knowledge. 
The very word " nature " speaks to us of that 
which is orderly, regular and constant. The term 
natural law, which we use so frequently, rests 
upon the fact of things having places and uses 
— and of their being in the right relations to the 
sum total of created entities. 

We find that the world is a system interrelated 
and interdependent, and there is no more inter- 
esting or profitable employ for the powers and 
faculties of men than to discover the place, re- 



FOR THE BEST WITHIN YOU 265 

lation and uses of the multitude of forces and 
things which come under the observation of man 
This is the great business of science. Every part 
of the sphere bears some relation to every other 
part, atom is related to atom, force to force; and 
the activities and interrelations of these are found 
to be capable of expression in definite, constant, 
unchangeable formulae called laws. The teleo- 
logical argument of theism, for the presence in 
the universe of an intelligence capable of account- 
ing for this order and adaptation of means to 
ends, is based upon the principle of this text. 

This teleological argument, however much crit- 
icised and contested, will ever be acceptable and 
efficient as evidencing an intelligence back of the 
intelligible, because its facts are so apparent to the 
common observer and its principles so in accord 
with our common life. 

Illustrations of adaptations and fitness of 
means to ends, as evidencing this principle of 
place and function in the world of nature, might 
be adduced without limitation, but it is a matter 
familiar to the minds of those who have studied 
the subject even a little. 

It is this same principle which underlies the 
argument of Paul to the Corinthian church, and 
of Menenius to the Roman mob, in the parable 
of the belly and the members. Says the Apostle, 



266 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

" For the body is not one member but many. 
. . . But now hath God set the members every 
one of them in the body, as it hath pleased 
him." * Therefore, we say that the very idea 
of law and of nature, of system and of a uni- 
verse, rests upon the principle implied in this text, 
that everything has a place and a proper and ap- 
propriate use, in the world which God has made. 

It is further taught in this text that if things 
are not put to their proper use, place and rela- 
tion, they are perverted, prostituted, misused and 
so must suffer the consequence of everything that 
is out of order. 

And here we detect a very plain divergence 
between the world of nature and the world of 
men. In nature things cannot, rightly speak- 
ing, get out of place nor break law. In 
nature the stars in their courses, the forces 
in their paths, the atoms in their affinities, 
are held in by bit and bridle, are restrained 
and controlled by the cords and bands of 
their being. No force ever contravened law, no 
atom ever left its place or forgot its function; 
as one has said, " An atom out of its place and 
the universe would be changed." It is because 
of their fidelity, to personify nature, to the 
law of their being, that " the heavens declare the 

1 1 Cor. xii, 14 and 18. 



FOR THE BEST WITHIN YOU 267 

glory of God and the firmament sheweth his 
handiwork." But when we come to the world of 
man, we see a different thing — man is endowed 
with the royal gift of personality, he is a free 
moral agent, he has will and can choose. Man 
can transgress law, violate law, refuse to obey 
law; that is, he can refuse to accept the higher 
law of his well-being and choose to follow the 
law of ill-being. Therefore it is that man is a 
subject fit to be counseled, commanded, advised; 
therefore the direction, " Give not that which is 
holy unto the dogs," etc., is peculiarly applicable 
to man. And it is from the viewpoint of man 
and of personality that Christ is speaking. 

The great business of a man is to know him- 
self, as the philosophers discovered ages ago; 
now if man can discover the meaning of life, the 
purpose of faculties, powers, organs and func- 
tions — if he can know the right use of himself 
in part and in toto — then the business of a wise 
man is to make that right use of himself. And 
this is the heart of the counsel here given. 

Assuming that right place and use of man in 
his various parts can be discovered, and this is 
the underlying idea of this entire sermon of the 
Master, then it follows that nothing can be put 
to a better use than that for which it was in- 
tended; and nothing ought to be put to a baser 



268 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

use than that for which it was intended. On this 
last inference the emphasis is here laid by Christ. 
This is to show lack of wisdom, it is to give that 
which is holy unto the dogs, and this ever entails 
loss. 

Jesus teaches elsewhere that he came " to seek 
and to save that which was lost " — through 
violation of this very precept. Now " loss " or 
" lost " is a word of varying degrees, as Jesus 
uses and illustrates the term. It is a relative 
term, and one that varies with varying persons. 
In one sense " lost " means out of possession; so 
we commonly use the term with respect to things, 
and so Christ used the term with respect to per- 
sons — this he illustrated by the woman who had 
lost one of the coins with which she was wont 
to adorn her head. It was out of her possession 
and not in the place it should be and so she 
searched the house until she found it. " Lost " 
again means out of position; those sheep, which 
in the night should be enfolded in the fold under 
the care and protection of the Shepherd, were not 
in their proper place, wandering abroad in the 
wilderness, in the cold and in danger; so the 
Good Shepherd seeks the sheep that he may 
bring them back to their rightful place by the 
Shepherd's side. 

"Lost" again means out of right relation; 



FOR THE BEST WITHIN YOU 269 

this is illustrated by the parable of the Lost Son; 
that son was out of right relation to the Father 
and to his house, when he was in the far country 
and among strangers engaged in the humiliating 
and degrading occupation of feeding swine. 
When he came back to the Father's heart and to 
the Father's home, he was " found," because he 
had returned to the right relation to the Father. 
This parable, this meaning of the term " lost," 
is particularly applicable to the realm of the 
personal. 

Now to be out of possession, out of position, 
out of right relation, is inappropriate, offensive 
to good taste and, in the realm of the personal, 
is perilous to a degree. The idea of inappropri- 
ateness is plainly implied in the words, " Give not 
that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your 
pearls before swine." 

It is the same idea that is contained in the 
proverb, "As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, 
so is a fair woman which is without discretion." 

That which is bad taste and inappropriate may 
be hard to define in words, but it is something 
that is immediately perceived by a cultivated sen- 
sibility. I knew of a man who was a collector 
of old furniture; once he found a beautiful ma- 
hogany sideboard, used by its present owners for 
a hencoop. His sense of propriety was plainly 



2 7 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

offended that so beautiful and so useful an arti- 
cle should be put to such ignoble uses. How 
would an artist be offended by discovering a gen- 
uine Gainsborough or Reynolds painting, adorn- 
ing a stable ! What a misuse it would be of the 
family jewels, for the son to take them from their 
sacred keeping and to give them for the adorn- 
ing of an harlot ! Now it is this same good taste 
that is offended, and this same base and frivolous 
character that is revealed by the man who will 
cast his pearls before swine, but now accompa- 
nied by the sad consequence of ruthless destruc- 
tion of the foolish man who will dare such a 
thing. 

Jesus is here speaking to men and speaking of 
man, and he teaches in this text that there is in 
every man that which is holy. Is this not em- 
phasized in all the Scripture? Man is made by 
God, made in His image, made little less than 
divine, crowned with glory and honor, made 
capable of being a king. The Spirit of God 
dwelleth within man and so man is a holy being. 
While things may be called holy, by an accommo- 
dation of terms, only persons are truly holy, for 
holiness is a quality of will and of character, holi- 
ness is an attribute of personality alone. We 
speak of the Holy Land; why is this called holy? 
Only because of the holy persons, the devout, 



FOR THE BEST WITHIN YOU 271 

noble, god-like men and women that have lived 
there. We speak of the " holy place," which is 
the temple. There is no place as such, which 
is holy; it is only because of its holy associations 
and uses, only because of the holy Spirit which 
inhabits that temple. This is likewise true of 
those books which we have called the Holy 
Bible, it is holy because of the holy Persons 
which it reveals, true because of the holy lives 
which it makes. Yes, the teaching here and else- 
where in Scripture is that man is a holy being — 
and within every man there is that which must be 
called holy. 

There is a pearl in every life. It was this 
new idea which Jesus introduced in his religion. 
In former times certain men and certain classes 
were counted worthy, and certain men and cer- 
tain classes were counted worthless. Jesus would 
sweep away this old, false notion, and reveal that 
God is the Maker of them all, and every person 
is capable of immortality. It was this teaching 
that introduced a new conception of man and 
gave a new dignity to life. How often has this 
fact of a pearl in every life been revealed in the 
basest and lowest of men. Here is a dissolute 
worthless fellow, who is a shame to his family 
and a menace to the community, in a moment, 
in an hour of peril he reveals a courage, a self- 



272 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

sacrificing spirit, a willingness to lay down his life 
to save others if you will, from a burning build- 
ing or from a stranded ship — and the pearl 
within him stands revealed. 

These are facts of common life and experi- 
ence, these are elements made use of by novelist 
and dramatist. Charles Dickens, in the best 
novel he ever wrote, " The Tale of Two Cities," 
has made most excellent use of such a character. 
Sidney Carton was a prodigal, profligate, base 
fellow; a burden to himself, a disgrace to his 
associates. What good was there in him? 
What worth in his life? And yet, such as he 
was, on occasion he was capable of a friendship 
which enabled hi,m to renounce his love for the 
sake of his friend, capable of a devotion which 
led him to the guillotine, a vicarious sacrifice, to 
save another's life. Most dramatic, most touch- 
ing, but most true. Even base men are capable 
of holy deeds. Why, it is this very belief that 
souls are pearls and lives are holy that gives the 
spring and spur to missionary enterprise; it is the 
recognition of this fact that inspires the lovers 
of their kind to go * the slums and sinks of 
the city and save those whom the multitude of 
men are passing by as worthless and lost. 

That which is undertaken by men as a work 
of rescue is here urged by the Master as a work 



FOR THE BEST WITHIN YOU 273 

of prevention. Says he, that man who does not 
live for the highest and best within him is guilty 
of giving the holy unto the dogs and of casting 
pearls before swine. Life was intended for the 
highest uses, the man who perverts these uses 
prostitutes this life. It is not necessary for us 
in this case to go aside as so many have done 
and seek to specify just who are meant by 
" swine " and by " dogs." It does not neces- 
sarily apply to Jews nor to Gentiles, to Protes- 
tants nor to Romanists. The emphasis of this 
utterance is not laid on the unworthiness of those 
to whom the precious things are so thoughtlessly 
given, but on the thoughtlessness, the unwisdom 
and the madness of the man who does not recog- 
nize his own worth, of the person who is not 
aware of his high calling of God. Our attention 
is fixed on the foolish fellow who is so ready to 
squander, to throw away the very richest and best 
he has even before those who are incapable, un- 
appreciative and brutish. This is Christ's call to 
a man to realize his nobility; to know that he is 
born for the purple, and is destined to be a king. 
The world would make a man believe that he is 
fatherless, friendless, poor and worthless — un- 
til it brings the man to its own low level. The 
Christ would have each man know that he is the 
son of a king, richly endued and endowed and 



274 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

capable of great things. Man is gifted with a 
wondrous body capable of great perfection, of 
high and holy uses. The hands, the feet, the 
eyes, the lips of the Master were such as we have, 
but we count them holy because of their blessed 
employ. The body likewise is capable of great 
perversion and misuse. Those East Indian 
fanatics, who in their devotion to a false religion 
bind their arms, their feet, their members, until 
they become atrophied and dead to use, sadly mis- 
use the body. That fair young girl, the most 
beautiful and soul-stirring of God's creations, who 
devotes her body to the service of lust — has even 
according to our common proverb, " gone to the 
dogs," and abused a holy possession. 

The mind, the gift of God, is capable of know- 
ing the will of God, of serving the brother, of be- 
coming the glory of its possessor — but it, too, 
may be perverted, abused, degraded. Oh, what a 
sad sight to see the human heart, fit dwelling-place 
for the true, the beautiful and the good, capable of 
housing God Himself, thrown open to the recep- 
tion and filling of the world. Heart-breaking 
sight it is to see bodies, minds, hearts, lives, ca- 
pable of heavenly and holy things, despised and 
devoted to base and ignoble uses. Do not be 
guilty of such folly and unwisdom, for the life is 
wrecked and the man is destroyed who does it. 



FOR THE BEST WITHIN YOU 275 

This principle finds its concrete illustration in 
Christ's most perfect parable, that of The Lost 
Son — the story of that young man who bore his 
Father's image, who was competent to be his 
Father's associate, companion, friend, son; who 
was capable of knowing his Father's mind and 
working his Father's will, whose right place and 
relation was in his Father's home and under his 
Father's love ; who was privileged to honor, pleas- 
ure and fellowship, yet who, because he was un- 
appreciative of the riches that were his, dead to 
the opportunities that were offered to him, asks 
for his patrimony, goes into a far country, wastes 
his substance in riotous living, until he comes to 
be a caretaker of swine. 

Such a man, Jesus teaches us in this text, is un- 
appreciative of himself, of his place, power, pos- 
sibilities, worth. These are like the " profane " 
Esau, who for a mess of pottage sold his birth- 
right. These are they who forget what manner 
of Spirit they are of. This text is Christ's call 
to self-appreciation. 

Such a man, the Master teaches, is unappreci- 
ated among the dogs and the swine. He may 
have engaging manners, a keen intellect, a sensi- 
tive nature, and cultivated powers, but what does 
the low and worthless company care for these? 
These are they who regard neither mind, spirit 



276 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

nor character in a man — they are materialists, 
sensualists, slaves of the flesh; they seek not him 
but his; the most worthy and accomplished man 
to such is only a tree to be robbed of its fruit, a 
purse to be relieved of its coin, a hive to be rifled 
of its sweets — and when they have possessed 
themselves of those goods he bears, the man him- 
self is cast out, with heartless jest and ruthless 
hand, to be trampled upon and to perish as he 
may. 

These obtuse, unappreciative and insensible 
creatures have been limned in Rudyard Kipling's 
striking and shocking verse, " The Vampire " : 

" A fool there was and he made his prayer 
(Even as you and I) 

To a rag and a bone and a hank of hair 
(We called her the woman who did not care), 
But the fool he called her his lady fair 
(Even as you and I). 

O the years we waste, and the tears we waste, 
And the work of our head and hand, 
Belong to the woman who did not know 
(And now we know that she never could know) 
And did not understand. 

The fool was stripped to his foolish hide 

(Even as you and I!) 

Which she might have seen when she threw him aside — 

(But it isn't on record the lady tried) 

So some of him lived but the most of him died — 

(Even as you and I!) 



FOR THE BEST WITHIN YOU 277 

And it isn't the shame, and it isn't the blame 
That stings like a white hot brand. 
It's coming to know that she never knew why 
(Seeing at last she could never know why) 
And never could understand. 

How pitiable it is, to see a soul capable of such 
high things fallen to so low an estate, through 
failure to heed the warning of the Christ, through 
disregard of the high calling of God. How many 
verifications have there been in life of the Mas- 
ter's prediction, " Lest haply they trample them 
under their feet and turn and rend you." 

Francois Villon is a classic case in point; poet, 
litterateur, soldier, thief and murderer; capable 
of companying with the world's highest and best, 
choosing his fellowship with the lowest and basest 
of men, a figure dramatic and dreadful — a true 
type of a melancholy class. None of God's crea- 
tures can rise so high as man and none can fall 
so low. 

In short, in this text Jesus urges: Do not de- 
spise thyself; do not estimate thyself lightly; do 
not let another count thee of little worth; " Hold 
that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy 
crown." 

" Beloved now are we the sons of God; and it 
doth not yet appear what we shall be : Every man 
that hath this hope in him purineth himself even 
as he is pure." 



2 7 8 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

Wise and blessed is that man who hears and 
heeds this call of the Master, to live worthy of 
the Godlike spirit that is within him. 



CHAPTER XVII 

LIVE THROUGH THE POWER THAT 

IS WITHOUT YOU 

Matt, vii, 7-1 1 

IN the passages which have preceded this and 
in the principles which have been exhibited in 
this great Discourse, the Master has taught a hard 
lesson. He has prescribed a difficult course for 
his learners; marked out a very straight and nar- 
row way of life for those who are to follow after 
him; he has made a demand for great power, if 
one is to do and to live after this pattern. 

He has told those who are learning from him 
that if they are to live the life worth living, that 
if they are to possess his religion, they are to 
live a perfect life, a true life, a pure life, etc., 
that they are to be free from avarice, double- 
mindedness, worry and censoriousness. In short, 
they are to do those very things for which they 
have no natural desire and to refrain from doing 
those very things for which they have such a 
strong desire. 

No man who thinks can deny the excellence, the 
importance of this way of life. No man who 
279 



2 8o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

appreciates the meaning of the message but in- 
stinctively exclaims, " This is an hard saying; who 
can hear it? " He is like the man who stands 
at the foot of the lofty x\lps, beholds their snowy 
heights, discerns their steep acclivities, and while 
he is gazing, comes one who says, " Yonder lie 
the broad visions, the pure air, the worthy places 
to be; friend, I bid thee climb." 

" Aye " answers the gazer, the aspirant, 
" thither lies the spot to which I would fain at- 
tain — to be desired, demanded by thyself and 
myself, but how shall one, so weak, so ignorant, 
so fearful as I, climb those dizzy heights?" 

The life mapped out in these teachings of 
Christ, no man can deny to be true, good — 
thither lies the blessed life, any man would do 
well to ascend these moral and spiritual heights; 
but how? Whence the strength? Who or what 
will enable? "To will is present with me; but 
how to perform that which is good, I find not." 

To this practical inquiry, to this human, com- 
mendable, desire, the Master now makes answer. 
This answer is written in the words, " Ask and 
it shall be given unto you; seek — knock," and in 
this answer we find a counsel that is both natural 
and true to the world in which we live. 

Man is a dependent creature, not self-existent, 
self-sustaining, self-sufficient or self-empowering. 



THE POWER TO LIVE 281 

He is a being of needs, wants and desires. How 
dependent a creature is man, we fail at times to 
remember, because we become so boastful of the 
things he can do and of the things he has done. 
We are like little children who have been brought 
up in a home supplied with everything that the 
heart can wish or mind devise — these things lie 
at our hands supplied by the free gift of another 
— all we have to do is to reach out our hand and 
take that which another has provided, and in the 
confusion of our thinking we come to consider 
that the taking is the creating, and the receiving 
is the giving — and that we are independent and 
self-supporting. It would be well for us at times 
to view the other side of the question, and to real- 
ize that we have nothing that we have not been 
given, and are nothing that we have not been 
made. 

Every man is dependent upon such simple 
things as air and light and heat; food and water 
and clothing; knowledge and music and art; love 
and life and spirit. All these things are neces- 
sities of our natures. Take away the simplest 
and most elemental of these gifts and man lives 
but a little while; take away the more spiritual 
and intellectual of them and man lives but a little 
life. 

Now, what is true of man is true of all the rest 



282 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

of living beings. Not only is man dependent but 
all living things are dependent, and the power to 
live comes not from within the organism but from 
without. Note it ; the power to live comes not 
from within but from without. 

There is not a plant that grows that does not 
rejoice in borrowed strength and borrowed glory 
— its beauty is from the sun, its health is from 
the soil, its well-being is dependent upon the 
gifts of the heavens and the earth. As the plant 
is dependent in that degree proportionate to the 
complexity of the life it manifests, so the animal, 
being more highly organized and capable of ex- 
pressing a nobler degree of life, is still more de- 
pendent than the plant. And man, who is wont 
to boast himself as the king of all creation, is, 
in truth, because he is the highest of all created 
beings, at the same time the most dependent and 
the most indebted, for every breath he breathes 
and for every manifestation he gives, to every 
realm of this created universe. How dependent 
he is, the great debt he owes, the study of nature 
and of science more and more reveals. 

How truly and quaintly has Sir Thomas Browne 
in his " Religion Medici " expressed the thought 
of man's dependence on food for his power to 
live physically. Says he, " All flesh is grass, is 
not only metaphorically but literally true; for all 



THE POWER TO LIVE 283 

those creatures we behold are but the herbs of 
the field, digested into flesh in them, or more re- 
motely carnified in ourselves. Nay, further, we 
are what we all abhor, Anthropophagi and can- 
nibals, devourers not only of men but of ourselves; 
and that not in an allegory but a positive truth ; 
for all this mass of flesh we behold came in at our 
mouths; this frame we look upon hath been upon 
our trenchers; in brief, we have devoured our- 
selves." 

Moreover, view the matter from the broadest 
standpoint and we discover that even the power 
in the earth, which is the power of the things on 
the earth, is from without itself. The grass 
which clothes our fields, the flowers which deck 
the sward, the trees which shade the flowers, the 
animals which browse upon tree and grass, and 
man himself, king of them all, all trace their 
strength directly to the great king of day, and 
we are in short but children of the sun. Thus we 
see that all creation is dependent, and that power 
to live is not from within but from without the 
organism. 

This brings us at once to the question, What 
do we mean by life? From the physical stand- 
point, life is plainly not defined but described in 
the so-called definition given by Herbert Spencer. 

" Life is the definite combination of heterogene- 



284 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

ous changes, both simultaneous and successive, in 
correspondence with external coexistences and 
sequences." Principles of Biology, Vol. I, p. 74. 
Herbert Spencer. 

In its simpler form it means that life is cor- 
respondence with environment. This tells not 
what life is but what life does. Life, then, is 
the continual process of appropriating the power 
which is without to the being which is within. 
Therefore, the living organism is simply a com- 
plex and interrelated system of agencies for ap- 
propriating, assimilating and distributing this 
power which is about us to the man which is 
within us. 

As we study and examine these living organisms 
from the lowest to the highest we find them all 
possessed of those instruments, agents, organs, 
now called lungs, now heart, now circulatory and 
now nervous systems, but all working to the com- 
mon end to enable us to receive and use the power 
which is within this earth we inhabit. 

In the Scripture which is before us, Christ tells 
us that that which is true of the physical world 
is likewise true of the spiritual. 

What is the meaning of worship in all its forms, 
from the most primitive to the most complex and 
civilized, but an evidence of man's feeling of spir- 
itual dependence? This is the fact evidenced by 



THE POWER TO LIVE 285 

the Assyrian and the Chaldean, the Greek and the 
Roman, in their sacrifices; this is the evidence of 
the Aztec teocallis with its altar and smoking 
sacrifice; this is the evidence of the ancestor wor- 
ship of the Chinese; this the evidence, most con- 
cretely put, of the fetichism of the west-coast Af- 
rican. The worshiper of the Congo region be- 
lieves that by some process which he does not 
clearly understand this spiritual power has been 
made to enter into a small portable object; this 
is the nexus between him and that spiritual power 
which he recognizes to be without him, and which 
he would appropriate and apply to the daily need 
of his mysterious life. 

So elemental and so universal a fact is this 
sense of dependence in all forms of religious prac- 
tice that Schleiermacher has given as the core and 
tap-root of religion the feeling of dependence. 

No man, in the sphere of the spirit is self-suf- 
ficient and self-sustaining more than in the sphere 
of the flesh. The power for living in both must 
come from without rather than from within. And 
this is the teaching of Scripture. 

Said Jesus to his disciples, " Ye shall receive 
power after that the Holy Spirit is come upon 
you." x Said Jesus of himself, " The Son can do 
nothing of himself but what he seeth the Father 

1 Acts i, 8. 



286 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

do." 2 In accord with this thought is the apos- 
tle's teaching, " I can do all things through Christ 
which strengtheneth me." 3 This is the import 
of Christ's argument with Nicodemus, " Ye must 
be born again. . . . Except a man be born of 
water and the Spirit." 4 This surely is the in- 
terpretation of the striking figure from the physi- 
cal world of the branch and the vine. The 
branch that is cut off from the vine is cut off from 
the source of power; that cut off from the source 
of power cannot bear fruit — it is dead. There- 
fore, " Abide in me as the branch abideth in the 
vine." 

Moreover, one great purpose of Scripture is 
to reveal to men the fact, the nearness and the 
character of the spiritual environment in which 
man dwells. This is the heart of the teaching of 
the law, the prophets and the history. This is 
the lesson of such an incident as that of Elisha 
and the young man imprisoned in Dothan. These 
two see about the city the forces of the king of 
Syria. The young man is fearful, weak, ready 
to surrender; Elisha prays that the eyes of the 
young man may be opened that he may see that 
which is the fact; his eyes are opened, " And be- 
hold the mountain was full of horses and chariots 

2 Jno. v, 19. 

3 Philip, iv, 13. 

4 Jno. iii, 5-7. 



THE POWER TO LIVE 287 

of fire round about Elisha." 

This certainly is the meaning of the pillar of 
cloud and the pillar of fire, a guide, guard and 
protection to wandering Israel. 

This is the heart of the message of Christ — 
the spiritual is near to man; God dwells not only 
in the heavens but on the earth; He dwells in the 
midst of and is the helper of His people. And 
this is the testimony of godly men to-day. 

One further thought, a little aside from the 
direct question but strikingly interesting. As no 
form of life is self-sufficient and self-sustaining, 
so no form of life is able to raise itself to the 
higher form which is above it. If the mineral 
world is to be possessed with that mysterious 
power called life, it can only be done by the vege-' 
tal life reaching down and touching the mineral 
with the touch of life. If the vegetal is to rise 
to a higher level of being it is only by the animal 
appropriating and endowing it with the qualities 
of a higher organism. Likewise, if man is to be 
raised to the order of spiritual beings, it is only 
by the spiritual reaching down and touching and 
giving the gift of spiritual life. This is the 
deeper meaning of the descent of the Son of God 
to earth; this is the meaning and purpose of the 
descent of the Spirit. 

These facts, therefore, which are implied in 



288 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

this command of Christ, being admitted, we are 
further taught that it is the wise man who recog- 
nizes this great law and acts in accord with it. 
An obligation is laid upon man by this explicit 
command of the Master : Ask — seek — knock. 
This is the call to a man to be up and doing; to 
get into right relation to that power which is with- 
out him, by an exercise of that divine gift of will 
which is within him. 

This command comes with the greater propri- 
ety and reason because man is equipped with the 
capability of responding to this demand of his 
spiritual environment. We are now in the realm 
of the personal, of that being endowed with the 
qualities of self-consciousness and self-determina- 
tion. And a responsibility obtains to such an one, 
which does not obtain in other lesser beings. The 
plant cannot determine its own conditions, can- 
not regulate its own environment — man can. The 
plant cannot set itself in right relations or, more 
accurately speaking, into wrong relations with its 
surroundings — man can. Man, like all other 
living beings, is equipped with the means of com- 
ing into right relations with the totality of his 
surroundings; therefore, where there is ability 
there is responsibility; hence the propriety of coun- 
sel and command. Thus are we made to see that 
as there is a natural body or organism, through 



THE POWER TO LIVE 289 

which is mediated to a man the power physical 
which is without him, so there is a spiritual body 
or organism, through which man comes into touch 
with the spiritual power which is without him. 
And the spiritual body is the complex and inter- 
related system of agencies for appropriating, as- 
similating and distributing spiritual power — that 
the man may be alive spiritually. Therefore, 
teaches the Master, the man has something to do 
for himself in the realm of the spiritual. 

The Power is without us, about us; man's busi- 
ness is to appropriate it. 

God never meant that a man should be idle; 
physically, mentally or morally. He must work 
if he would live, ask if he would receive, seek if 
he would find, knock if he would have it opened 
unto him. 

The principle of cooperation is a fundamental 
law of life. God never meant that a man should 
be a failure through a lack of power; and He 
never meant that he should have power without 
asking for it. God stands ever ready to help 
— and man's great business is to grasp the hand 
that is stretched out toward him. We are to be 
yoked together with God while living our life in 
this world. 

The command of the text is only one form of 
the command given in various ways in all life. 



2 9 o THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

Hunger is God's call to physical labor; curiosity- 
is God's call to mental activity; aspiration is God's 
call to spiritual activity. Behold the man tend- 
ing and tilling the ground. What is he doing? 
Asking for food — and food is power. Behold 
the student poring over the pages of the learned 
writer, or peering through the eye of the micro- 
scope. What is he doing? Seeking for knowl- 
edge, and knowledge is power. Behold the wor- 
shiper on his knees, or standing and singing 
praises, or studying over the inspired Word of 
Truth. What is he doing? Knocking at the 
gate of heaven that he may come into the pres- 
ence of the Spirit of God, and the Spirit is power. 

If a man is to live — if he is to be saved in 
his living in any one of these spheres of human 
existence, it must be by his working out his own 
salvation. And this the man should do the more 
readily, cheerfully and willingly, " For it is God 
which worketh with you both to will and to do of 
his good pleasure," and this is the teaching of the 
remainder of this passage. 

Says the Master, to the man who obeys this 
command God responds, and with such an one 
God cooperates. What simple and ample evi- 
dence we have of this in the everyday affairs of 
the world about us. Is it not eminently true in 
the field and the garden, that while one may plant 



THE POWER TO LIVE 291 

and another may water, it is God who giveth the 
increase? God cooperates with the tiller of the 
soil. Is it not eminently true in the cultivation 
of the mind? He who trains, exercises, develops 
his faculties, shall receive the return of his labor 
because God has so willed it. And " what a 
world of profit and delight, of power, knowledge 
and omnipotence, is open to the studious arti- 
san ! " In the texts the certainty of the response 
is certified by Christ. This fact is taught, and 
repeated in the very words of the passage, " It 
shall be given unto you," " Ye shall find," " It 
shall be opened unto you." " For every one that 
asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and 
to him that knocketh it shall be opened." 

The fact again is taught in a figure. Christ 
here reasons, as so often he did, from the fa- 
miliar, common, accepted relations of men to each 
other, to their relations to God and His relations 
to them. 

Ask the boy what is the meaning of his father, 
and will he not tell you, if he has thought at all 
about the subject, that he is the provider and 
helper? Ask him what is the chief business of 
the father and will he not answer to give, pro- 
vide, furnish, in short, to empower? 

Moreover, says the Master, as the fact of the 
response is certain, so the quality of the response 



292 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

is guaranteed by the character of the Giver. His 
reasoning is this: Bad fathers know how to give 
good gifts. And is it not a fact, proven by ex- 
perience, that even evil men wish, desire and work 
for better conditions and higher ideals for their 
children than they do for themselves? Ofttimes 
is it evidenced that evil fathers purpose and do 
better for their sons than for themselves. Again, 
says our Teacher, it is against the very spirit and 
nature of a father to trick and deceive his son. 
" Or what man is there of you, who if his son 
shall ask him for a loaf, will he give him a stone; 
or if he shall ask for a fish, will he give him a 
serpent?" So the reasoning hurries to its 
blessed, reassuring conclusion — if evil fathers 
will give their children good gifts, certainly good 
fathers will give good gifts, and your heavenly 
Father must give the best gifts, or, as Luke has 
it, the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him. There- 
fore ask, seek, knock; do your part, knowing that 
God has done His before you have begun yours; 
knowing that He is not only your God but your 
Father. Work out your own high destiny, live 
up to the ideals which I have set before you, be- 
cause God is near at hand, working with you, to 
accomplish His good pleasure for you and 
within you. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

LIVE FOR THE BEST WITHIN OTHERS 
Matt, vii, iz 

SPEAKING broadly, up to this point, Jesus has 
been preaching the Gospel of Christian Egoism. 
He has been talking to the individual and of the 
individual. He has taught the worth of the in- 
dividual, the need of the individual and the pos- 
sibilities and blessed life open to the individual. 
He has considered the man in himself, and the 
influences, forces, relations and activities to which 
the man must adjust himself, and which affect the 
man as the center of life. He has exhibited what 
the man, as an individual, is to do, to avoid and 
to be. 

This treatment of the theme is logical, sensible, 
sound. Every man begins and must begin his ac- 
quaintance with life, from himself as center. It 
is a man's first duty truly to love himself. 

But now it becomes necessary to change the 
viewpoint, to take a little broader scope of 
thought, to lay emphasis on the " other man." 
lest the individual become warped, one-sided, self- 
ish, foolish in his thought and conduct. Altruism 
293 



294 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

must have a place in all right thinking and in all 
right living. One man is no man; a man is what 
he is only in relation to others, and the wise and 
right thinking man will recognize this fact and 
live his life according to the facts. 

Altruism is not a contradictory but a comple- 
ment of egoism. As the law runs a man must 
love himself — but he does not truly love himself 
unless he loves his neighbor as himself. This 
sums up the whole law on the manward side. 
Therefore, for the moment the Master focuses 
the attention of his hearers on the law which dic- 
tates what shall be our relation to our neighbor, 
and this theme he presents in those wonderful 
words which have been commonly and rightly 
called The Golden Rule — which is the Greatest 
Law in the World. 

Now, is it not apparent that this rule recog- 
nizes and declares what is a fact — that is, the 
complex nature of humanity? Human society is 
not simple but complex, and man exists in neces- 
sary relations to others. 

This is in perfect harmony with all other cre- 
ated things in this universe. The earth repre- 
sents a unity in variety. There is a variety in 
form, color, sound, function, and from this variety 
comes the complexity and the completeness of the 
present system of things. In this vast system, 



LIVE FOR BEST WITHIN OTHERS 295 

things are dependent one on another, and things 
are related one to another. And the possibility, 
the pleasure and the perfection of life in man 
comes from discovering and observing the right 
relation to the varied system which is without us 
and of which we are a part. 

How palpably true this is, a moment's reflec- 
tion will discover in even the commonest and most 
accepted activities of our existence. Did you ever 
think of what a loss it would be to man if there 
were only one color? Did you ever think how 
the world of sound would be curtailed if there 
were only one tone? Did you ever consider how 
impossible a world of sight if there were only 
one form? If there were no variety in form or 
color there would be no art; if there were no 
variety in tone or time there would be no music; 
if there were no variety in thought and conduct 
there would be no man. 

As this is true for that material sphere which 
man inhabits called the earth, so is it true for 
that personal sphere in which he lives called the 
world. Society is an organism — part being re- 
lated to part and all the parts bearing a relation 
to the whole. This parallelism is exhibited at 
length and in great detail in Herbert Spencer's 
" Principles of Sociology," Part II. The body 
physical and the body social present many points 



296 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

of striking similarity. They are alike in com- 
position — each is composed of individual units, 
the one of cells, the other of persons. They are 
alike in development; each organism, the physical 
and the social, grows in complexity as it grows in 
size. They are alike in equipment; each has or- 
gans formed on like principles and qualified to do 
like work. Each has appropriating, assimilating, 
distributing organs, and each is dependent on the 
power that is without them for their sustenance 
and life. Each has special parts exercising spe- 
cial functions, these parts and functions becom- 
ing more specialized as the body becomes more 
highly developed. In each organism, physical 
and social, every part is dependent on every other 
part. This, in brief, is the underlying idea of 
Mr. Spencer's analogy — and in this analogy he 
has only done with more detail, for the body so- 
cial, what the Apostle Paul, centuries before, and 
in more general terms, did for the body spiritual. 
The general truth may be expressed in the words 
of the apostle, " The body is not one member but 
many." This is the teaching of philosophy; this 
is the evidence of experience and this is the im- 
plication of Christ, in this text we are considering. 
Now this fact, which no man can dispute, cre- 
ates an obligation. From the interdependence 
and interrelation of society follows a reciprocal in- 



LIVE FOR BEST WITHIN OTHERS 297 

debtedness of each member to every other mem- 
ber. In other words, to bring the thought to the 
individual as a point of comparison, I am what I 
am because of others. How evident this is, even 
a hasty glance at the commonest things of our 
daily life will reveal. 

A glance at my dinner table will at once reveal 
that I am largely indebted to others for the food 
that sustains me. The roast resting there has 
come from the plains of the West; the salt I put 
upon it has come from Virginia; the pepper is 
from the East Indies; the silver in my knife and 
fork is from the mines in Colorado, the linen 
of the tablecloth is from Ireland, the wood of my 
board, let me be boastful of my mahogany and 
say,- is from Spanish Honduras, and the coffee 
which finishes my very simple meal is from the 
island of Java. Thus I am nourished by what 
the ends of the earth have provided for me. 

Behold the " creature comforts " of my house, 
whence are they? The pictures from Paris or 
Germany; the rugs, let us hope, from Persia; 
the furniture, perchance from Grand Rapids, 
Mich., the bric-a-brac and curios from every na- 
tion of the earth. Thus am I comfortable, thus 
am I luxurious, because of the skill, industry and 
labor of a thousand men and women. Take the 
country in which I live, and whose liberties and 



298 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

institutions have so largely made me what I am? 
Whence came it? Is it not the gift of the wis- 
dom, the love, the labor and the sacrifice of those 
who have gone before me? It has been conse- 
crated and hallowed by the blood and unselfish 
devotion, even unto death, of those whom I have 
never known, of those whom I can never repay. 

But a man is not only what he has but what he 
knows. Whence my knowledge? To how many 
teachers, instructors, writers, counselors, friends 
am I indebted for the little that I know! Bring 
man down to the last analysis, let us say that the 
best that is within him is his character. Let us 
admit the truth that he is what his character is, 
and giving every credit to the self, how many thou- 
sands have helped to make me what I am in char- 
acter! The best elements of character, the 
qualities of courage, love, kindness, sympathy, un- 
selfishness, service, all presuppose and necessitate 
the existence of others than the self for their 
birth and development. 

Now, as I am indebted to others for what I 
am, so others are my creditors as to what they 
ought to be and shall be. " I am debtor both 
to the Greeks and to the barbarians, both to the 
wise and to the unwise," * is the formula in which 
the Apostle has expressed this truth. 

1 Rom. i, 14. 



LIVE FOR BEST WITHIN OTHERS 299 

As this is true with respect to the matters spir- 
itual, so is it true with respect to the matters civil 
and social, and civil jurisprudence has expressed 
this obligation in the maxim, " Where there is a 
right there is a duty." That I have civil rights 
means that I have civil duties; that none must 
interfere with my life, liberty and pursuit of hap- 
piness, reads likewise that I must interfere with 
the life, liberty or pursuit of happiness of none. 
That I have a right to the fulfillment of that con- 
tract which you have given me, means likewise 
that you have a right to the fulfillment of that 
contract which I have given you. 

This principle, which is so palpably true in the 
realm of the commercial and social, is likewise 
true in the realm of the moral. That I have 
moral rights means that I have moral obligations. 
Thus it is plain that interdependence interpreted 
rightly reads reciprocal indebtedness. 

This obligation discloses a principle not so read- 
ily perceived; to wit, the greatest unselfishness is 
the highest self-interest. The idea tempting hu- 
man nature is selfishness. We early learn to 
think of self. This is but natural; the first 
thoughts necessarily are of the self, and of the 
relation of that system which is without us to the 
self. Life in its earliest stages is ego-centric. 
The child begins by planning and seeking its com- 



3 oo THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

fort, its pleasure. The term " me " is soon 
learned and " my and mine " are not long in fol- 
lowing. In this region the human life long lives, 
and it is only by training, thought and develop- 
ment that the human unit can be made to realize 
that " self " is not the center of the universe. 

In this respect the moral world has paralleled 
the physical; for centuries man believed that he 
lived in a geo-centric system, and it was not until 
the Copernican teaching laid hold on the minds of 
men that they saw that man lives in a solar-cen- 
tric system. The center of things is not within 
the self but without the self. This is the truth 
of science and this is the truth of religion. 

The maxim commonly quoted is, " Every man 
for himself." Some have even yet remained 
bound to the old false notion. This false rule 
of life means not only no true love of the brother 
but no true love of the self — it means not only 
murder of the brother but murder of the self. 

Now it is easily evidenced that the ill-being of 
others is the ill-being of self. A disease spot in 
a city is a menace to the entire community. A 
cancerous growth on any part of the social body 
injures the good health of that entire body. In 
London a few years ago the crusade against the 
sweat-shop system was initiated because the 
daughter of one of London's high officials was 



LIVE FOR BEST WITHIN OTHERS 301 

brought to her death by a disease contracted 
through wearing a cloak made in the sweat-shops 
in which worked a girl who was afflicted with that 
disease. India is a great remove from Europe 
and America; one might think it makes but little 
difference to him personally whether India has 
the plague of cholera. But I have read that there 
has never been a great plague of cholera that did 
not originate in India. It behooves wise men on 
the principle of self-preservation, if for no other 
motive, to keep the health of the world sound. 
Likewise, the moral ill-being of others affects me. 
That there is dishonesty, robbery, murder and im- 
morality in any part of the community means that 
my life is less secure, safe and comfortable for 
that very reason. The poverty, pauperism, dis- 
content and wretchedness of a part of a people 
was a matter of little consequence to the nobles 
of France, to those who danced and gamed, to 
those who crowded the salons of Paris with their 
smiling and comfortable presence in 1789; but 
those who were once so indifferent became very 
interested, those who were once so unconcerned 
became very much identified with these things, 
when the wail of discontent changed into the cry 
of "to the guillotine!" and when the hidden 
roots of wretchedness bore the bloody, bitter fruit 
of 1793. Then the nobility, when the dread dis- 



3 02 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

ease had reached the head, were made to realize 
that they were of the same body as were the suf- 
fering hands and feet of society. To-day in 
medicine we know that disease is not an affection 
of a part but an affection of the whole body, 
which merely reveals its symptoms in the part. 
How many times in history ancient and modern, 
has the apostle's wise dictum been verified, " If 
one of the members suffer all the members suffer 
with it " ! 

Likewise it is true that the well-being of others 
means the well-being of self. The health, 
wealth, knowledge, morality of the part expresses 
itself through the whole. " If Africa were filled 
with a civilized and prosperous people it would 
stimulate the business and multiply the gains of 
mankind." Thus has it come to pass again and 
again that the unselfishness of the Christian mis- 
sionary has benefited and enriched the business 
enterprises of the selfish merchant who has re- 
fused to give, because he had no particular inter- 
est in the well-being of the barbarian. Thus may 
it be shown by patent, palpable proof that " if 
one member be honored all the members rejoice 
with it," and that in the last analysis the high- 
est unselfishness is the highest self-interest. 

If this principle be in any measure true, it 
commands a practice and demands a rule of ac- 



LIVE FOR BEST WITHIN OTHERS 303 

tion. And here arises the difficulty, to find such 
a rule as shall be comprehensive, yet compact and 
complete, applying to all possible human rela- 
tions. This was the problem the Master set him- 
self to solve in the Golden Rule. Suppose that 
all possible human relations and conditions must 
be directed by separate laws and precepts, apply- 
ing to particular individuals and to specific cases; 
how many volumes of laws must one have, how 
many statutes must be learned ! Look at the 
number of volumes necessary to contain the 
statutes of a single State. Observe the precepts 
of Moses, and the multiplication of interpretations 
made by scribes and scholars, and one can get some 
vague idea of the colossal work. A man could 
not carry the volumes, much less become ac- 
quainted with their contents. Now Jesus has 
given us, in this Golden Rule, a principle which 
solves the problem and answers adequately every 
question of right conduct in the relation of a man 
to his brother. The rule is simple and portable, 
no man but what can easily remember it. A man 
carries within him the test of every possible situa- 
tion. A few years ago the railroads of Pennsyl- 
vania asked one of its judges to frame in briefest 
possible form a notice that should comprehend 
the entire law of negligence. To-day we see the 
result of that effort on the sign-boards, placed 



3 o 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

at the railroad crossing in that State; it reads, 
" Stop — look — listen." The judge received 
five thousand dollars for his skill. The Master 
has done a far harder thing in giving us the law 
of brotherly conduct in the few words of this 
Golden Rule. 

This rule is not only portable and easily remem- 
bered but it is of easy and universal application. 
Can one conceive of any human situation to which 
it would not apply? It applies to every possible 
relation of human society — in the family, the 
school, the store, the state and the nation. Ob- 
serve, again, that this rule is in the positive and 
not in the negative form; this makes it to in- 
clude all desirable non-interference, as well as all 
positive helpfulness. I must not only not do any- 
thing to interfere with my brother's working out 
his own highest destiny, but it lays me under the 
obligation to do all that lies within my power to 
assist the development of the best life within my 
brother. It says to me that I am to put myself 
in my brother's place and so deal with him as I 
would have him deal with me. Suppose that 
" I " am the boy in the streets, asking for food, 
for education, for help and for healing — what 
would I desire my brother to do for me? From 
following this rule has come schools, hospitals, 
philanthropies and Christian civilization. The 



LIVE FOR BEST WITHIN OTHERS 305 

practical application of this rule promises a glori- 
ous result, even the true religion — the fulfilling 
of the law and the prophets. 

The observing and obeying of the law in this 
perfected form in which the Master gives it, 
makes religion to be that practical thing it was 
intended to be. All hours and all days are holy, 
all places and all callings are sacred, and religion 
is coterminous with life. This was the religion 
that Jesus ever taught, and the fulfillment or the 
failure to fulfill this law is the supreme test by 
which the sons of God are to be accepted or re- 
jected. This is the sum of the law — this is the 
gathering up into one sentence of all those teach- 
ings that have gone before. This is the practical 
application of that sermon which the Master has 
been preaching. It is according to this law that 
the sons of men are to be judged, as is most clearly 
pictured for us in the twenty-fifth chapter of Mat- 
thew. Before him shall be gathered all the na- 
tions of the earth, and they shall be tried by the 
Golden Rule. 

To the one class he shall say, I was hungry, 
thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick and in prison — and 
ye ministered unto me through ministering unto 
one of the least of these my brethren. To the 
other class he shall say, Because ye ministered not 
unto the least of these my brethren, when hungry, 



3 o6 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

thirsty, a stranger, naked, sick and in prison, ye 
did it not unto me. In other words the measure 
of our treatment of our brethren is the measure 
of our treatment of Christ, and a man's service 
of God is manifested by his service to his fellows, 
and the true religion consists not in reciting creeds, 
nor in metaphysical theologies, not in making pro- 
fessions, nor performing rites, but in showing our 
love toward our God through our lives among our 
brothers. 

And such a practical, real religion as this is 
coincident with the need and the desire of plain 
humanity at the present day. We can even see 
signs of the fulfillment of this promise in modern 
society. Should you ask what is the dominant 
idea of industrial relations to-day, we answer 
brotherhood. This is the underlying meaning of 
cooperation, association and organization among 
the working people; that is, among the best and 
sincerest of them. And in judging of the mass it 
is right to judge it from the most favorable in- 
stances. We do not deny that there are dema- 
gogues, time-servers and self-seekers among the 
brotherhoods of labor. They are but men. But 
even society itself, if judged from its least favor- 
able aspects, might be condemned as " banded 
iniquity." 

Should you ask what is the dominant idea among 



LIVE FOR BEST WITHIN OTHERS 307 

the nations of the earth to-day, I answer you 
brotherhood — and call to witness the courts of 
arbitration and The Hague conferences. Should 
you ask what is the dominant idea of philan- 
thropic activities, without hesitation I answer you 
brotherhood. Should you ask what is the domi- 
nant idea of Christian and church relations, I an- 
swer you brotherhood. The churches are coming 
closer together every year in their fraternal rela- 
tions; it was but a short time ago since a Metho- 
dist, Baptist and Presbyterian congregation in New 
York City united in a common communion serv- 
ice. The ultimate goal of humanity is the realiza- 
tion of this ideal. This was the prayer of Christ, 
" That they all may be one, as thou Father art 
in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in 
us." 3 Therefore when we consider the scope, 
the practical operation and the heavenly end of 
this Golden Rule, are we not right in terming it 
the Greatest Law in the World? 

3 Jno. xvii, 21. 



CHAPTER XIX 

life's golden invitation 

Matt, vii, 13-14 

THE great discourse is drawing to a close; 
Christ has finished the presentation of the 
outline of the Life Worth Living; he now ap- 
proaches the point where he must make the prac- 
tical application of his teaching. 

The man who has been listening while the Mas- 
ter unfolds line upon line, precept upon precept, 
principle upon principle, has felt, " How hard is 
this teaching; how difficult this life; how narrow 
this way"; likewise that man who to-day reads, 
meditates upon and appreciates this discourse ex- 
periences a like state of mind and feeling. 

With this estimate and impression the Master 
perfectly accords, and yet seeks in a brief and im- 
pressive manner to show that this life is narrow 
of necessity. He then makes an appeal to his 
hearers to choose the only way of life worth liv- 
ing, and offers them the Golden Invitation to enter 
that way, with the assurance that along this nar- 
row way and only along this way, lies true life 
and worthy living. 



LIFE'S GOLDEN INVITATION 309 

We observe at the outset that this invitation 
which the Master gives is based on a general 
proposition, contained in the sentences, " Narrow 
is the gate and strait is the way which leads unto 
life," " For broad is the gate and wide is the 
way which leads to destruction." These strik- 
ing utterances make it plain to us that all life is 
an adjustment, a harmony, a mean between two 
extremes, a knife-edge, a narrow way. 

The ancient mariner, who would sail between 
the island of Sicily and the continent of Italy, 
must needs go through the narrow and perilous 
strait of Messina; on either hand lay death and 
destruction; on one side were the frightful rocks 
of Scylla, on the other the yawning whirlpool of 
Charybdis; only the courageous man, the skillful 
pilot and the brave mariner, could steer that nar- 
row course necessary for a safe issue. Thus is 
life pictured to us in the words of our Teacher, 
the safe way, the right way, is a narrow, difficult 
course, while on either hand lies destruction. 

The proposition which the Master here enunci- 
ates is true to the earth in its system. The earth 
is held in a delicate balance; its position and very 
existence depends upon the maintenance of this 
balance. There are two opposing forces which 
keep it in place; on the one hand there is the 
centripetal force, a gravitation toward the sun, 



3 io THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

a pull, to speak popularly, which keeps it from 
flying off into space ; but there is also a centrifugal 
force, due to the revolution of the earth in its 
orbit, which keeps it from flying into the sun, and 
so being destroyed. Destruction of the earth, in 
other words, lies on either hand; existence and 
life depend upon the exact balance. 

As this is a principle true of the earth in its 
system, so is it true of the system in the earth. 
All things on this earth may be said to be in a 
state of equilibrium or balance. There is a place 
for everything and everything must be in its 
place; there is a right relation, an exact position, 
a particular function. This place, this position, 
this function, is the principle upon which the earth 
depends; destruction lies on either hand. 

This is likewise true of all forms of life within 
the earth system. The physical life of man de- 
pends upon the maintenance of a perfect balance, 
an equilibrium. The forces without man tend to 
destroy this equilibrium, the forces within seek 
to retain, or if slightly shaken, to restore this 
balance. How delicate and how nicely adjusted 
is this balance is immediately revealed in the 
change of temperature, or in the heart action, or 
in other bodily symptoms, once the equilibrium 
has been disturbed. Let this equilibrium be dis- 
turbed, and the foes of health immediately assert 



LIFE'S GOLDEN INVITATION 311 

themselves. In other words, the way of physical 
life is narrow, while the way of physical destruc- 
tion is very broad. How well is this familiar 
fact voiced in the quaint words of Sir Thomas 
Browne. " Men that look no further than their 
outsides think health an appurtenance unto life, 
and quarrel with their constitutions for being 
sick; but I, that have examined the parts of a 
man and know upon what tender filaments that 
fabric hangs, do wonder that we are not always 
so (sick) ; and, considering the thousand doors 
that lead to death, do thank my God that we can 
die but once." 1 

The way of intellectual and mental life is a 
narrow way and the way of intellectual death is 
a broad way. How emphatically this is illus- 
trated in the diseases of the brain and of the 
study of the delicate structure of that instrument 
of the mind, modern science and medicine makes 
only too plain. 

But in this point our reference is more particu- 
larly to the intellectual side of the question. How 
few things we really know, and how imperfect is 
our knowledge of even those things we think we 
know; yet of how many things we are profoundly 
ignorant. Truth itself, or the sound and normal 
life of the intellect, is not poorly defined when 

1 " Religio Medici," Sir Thos. Browne. 



312 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

we term it a balance, a harmony, a narrow way, 
depending for its very life upon the maintenance 
of a happy medium. There is only one road lead- 
ing to intellectual life, while there are many roads 
leading to intellectual destruction. How plainly 
is this evidenced in the history of philosophy. 
Materialism in the extreme equals error; ideal- 
ism in the extreme equals error. The truth lies 
somewhere between them. The intuitional phi- 
losophy in the extreme produces error; the utili- 
tarian philosophy in the extreme is erroneous; the 
truth is the nice balance between them. 

Likewise in the department of thought, termed 
Theology, the mistakes that have been made, it 
would appear have been the result of holding ex- 
treme views, the consequence of a departure from 
that middle way of life. This fact finds its illus- 
tration in the theology concerning the nature and 
person of Christ. To regard him as only divine 
results in Docetism and Sabellianism; to over- 
emphasize the human produced Aryanism and 
Nestorianism. Who is skillful enough to steer 
that narrow way between the two extremes? He 
is the happy man, who can safely and equally 
hold the Christ to be the God-man. 

This same principle has its abundant illustra- 
tion in men's methods of interpreting the Scrip- 
tures. Extreme literalism in interpretation lands 



LIFE'S GOLDEN INVITATION 313 

us in absurdities and contradictions; while extreme 
spiritualizing and allegorizing lands one in that 
which is meaningless and nonsensical, and makes 
us as absurd as Origen. The truth lies some- 
where between. In short, man's entire nature is 
made upon this plan; the maintenance of a bal- 
ance, the keeping of a narrow way. 

The failure to keep the right balance, the right 
relation of powers and faculties within a man, to 
each other, results in a one-sided, disproportioned 
and abnormal product. Here, for instance, is a 
man who allows his brain, his intellect, his head, 
to run away with him. The artist represents 
such an one, and rightly, with a very large head, 
and a small, undeveloped body. The humorist 
denominates such an one as " megalocephalous " 
or "swelled-head," and he speaks the truth. These 
pictures and these phrases stand for a fact; he is 
puffed up, swollen, self-conceited, self-contained 
and inevitably in error. He is a thinking ma- 
chine, cold, logical, an icicle; at home in a library, 
a lecture-hall or a study, but out of place and a 
bore elsewhere. He is not even safe as a teacher, 
because he only knows life on its one side; he is 
biased, over-balanced; nor can he be trusted to 
impart the truth, for he is not rightly adjusted to 
the world in which he lives. 

Though he may be right in certain aspects of 



3 1 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

life, for the intellect has its place, yet he is just 
as wrong in others, for heart and will have their 
place in the world of men. 

Here, on the other hand, is a man who runs 
all to heart, emotions, affections, feelings. The 
artist represents him with his heart on his sleeve; 
he is pictured with long flowing locks, a drooping 
eye, a weak mouth and a sad, sweet smile; the 
boys call him softy and sop. He is apt to be 
found among artists, musicians and kindred call- 
ings where the sensibilities and feelings predom- 
inate. His intellect is rightly represented by a 
very small numeral. His will is a neural cord 
instead of a backbone. His home is at a " pink " 
tea, a chrysanthemum supper or a " german." 
He is not a fit associate for man or woman. 

Here is still another, whose will far over- 
weighs his other faculties. He is stubborn, 
heady, quarrelsome, opinionated, overbearing 
and to be avoided. He is not of a strong will, 
for this depends upon the right relation of the 
will to the other faculties, but he is " will-ful." 

From such an one comes disputation, refuta- 
tion, egotism and war. Thus we see that the 
psychical life of man depends upon a very nice 
adjustment, a balance, a right relation and pro- 
portion of faculty to faculty. It is, in other 
words, a narrow way. 



LIFE'S GOLDEN INVITATION 315 

Moreover, the life of a right morality is a nar- 
row way, the life of a right and wise conduct, for 
be the man within ever so nicely adjusted yet he 
must be in proper adjustment to the world of men 
and of things and forces that are without. He 
must be as nicely balanced in his conduct as is the 
bird in that tenuous air, through which it wings 
its way. This delicacy of adjustment may be rep- 
resented by the paradoxical principles that right 
living must observe. " In decision a double de- 
mand is constantly laid upon us : make delibera- 
tion habitual, yet decide promptly when the evi- 
dence is once in." 2 The man who decides with- 
out deliberation is lost; the man who deliberates 
without ever reaching a decision is likewise lost. 
We have seen men who failed on either hand; 
the way to destruction is broad. 

" In the moral life quietism wars with enthusi- 
asm, the mood of the East with the mood of the 
West, and yet we can spare neither." Destruc- 
tion lies in either extreme. " Character in the 
large sense requires both self-assertion and self- 
surrender, both individuality and deference, both 
the assertion of the law for one's self, and the 
reasonable yielding to others, both loyalty to con- 
viction and open-mindedness, both free independ- 

2 This and following references are to H. C. King's " Rational 
Living." 



316 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

ence and obedience." One may miss the true 
way on either side; one has missed the true way, 
the way of life, when he has failed to keep the 
balance. " Religion, too, has to steer between 
superstitiousness that sees the magically supernat- 
ural everywhere, and a materialistic realism that 
sees God nowhere." On the one side of this 
narrow strait lie the rocks of materialism, on the 
other hand is the whirlpool of a bottomless spir- 
itualism. Thus do we see that in every phase 
of man's existence the way of life is a narrow 
way, and calls for the utmost endeavor to keep 
it. " Few there be that find it." 

Now this proposition that life is a narrow way 
having been in a measure evidenced — and it 
might be far more largely substantiated did space 
permit — we observe that the Master here makes 
a particular application of the principle, to this 
discourse. He is now summing up and drawing 
to a conclusion, and he here characterizes the way 
of which he has been speaking as a narrow way. 

Life has been his theme through the entire dis- 
course; the ideal life, the life worth living, the 
life which God demands of His children. More- 
over, life here in this present world has been the 
theme of his teaching. He says nothing and he 
intimates nothing about the hereafter. It is true 
he is speaking of the citizens and of the laws of the 



LIFE'S GOLDEN INVITATION 317 

kingdom of heaven, but that kingdom of heaven of 
which he speaks is here and now, in their very 
midst, or even within them as he teaches at a later 
day. We must bear this in mind, as we think on 
these things, for some having forgotten to keep 
the true relation of predicate to subject have gone 
greatly astray in their interpretation of the ser- 
mon, at this point. 

That this way, of which he has been speak- 
ing, is a narrow way, is shown by the general 
proposition which we have already stated; that it 
is a narrow way is shown more amply and quite 
as clearly from a consideration of the paradoxes 
of Scripture, wherein our right relation to the 
world in which we live is intimated. These para- 
doxes express the harmony, the balance, the mean 
between the extremes. " Blessed are they that 
mourn." " Rejoice and again I say rejoice." 
That is, in this world a man is to be sad and yet 
glad; "Blessed are the meek." "Let no man 
despise thy youth." That is, a man is to be hum- 
ble, and yet of a strong self-esteem. " Bear ye 
one another's burdens." " Every man shall bear 
his own burden." A man is to be self-reliant 
and yet fully aware of his dependence on others 
and of others' dependence on him. " Work out 
your own salvation." " By grace ye are saved." 
That is, a man has much to do for himself, while 



3 i 8 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

he remembers that God does much more for him. 
"Render unto Caesar — Render unto God." A 
man is under an obligation to the kingdoms of 
this world, and at the same time under an obliga- 
tion to the kingdom not of this world. " Use 
the world — but — do not abuse the world." 
That is, there is a right use for everything and 
there is a wrong use for everything. The due 
proportion must be maintained. These paradoxes 
might be indefinitely multiplied, but those given 
are sufficient amplification and illustration of the 
principle involved — bringing again before our 
minds how narrow is the way of life — and how 
broad is the way of destruction. 

But if you would be finally convinced that the 
way the Master teaches is a narrow way, run 
over those subjects once more concerning which 
he has spoken. Begin with that nicely balanced 
harmonious character he has set before them. 
Hear him as he says that we are to live the peace- 
able life, live the pure life, live the large life, live 
the perfect life, live free from avarice, live free 
from double-mindedness, live free from worry, 
live free from censoriousness. When we realize 
what this life includes and what it excludes, we 
become aware that a path is here laid down that 
calls for exceeding exactness of walk and for most 
delicately adjusted powers of conduct. 



LIFE'S GOLDEN INVITATION 319 

And now our Teacher, from speaking of the 
way, turns to speak of the common temptation 
which arises when we contemplate this way. This 
is taught us in those words, " Many there be that 
enter in thereby," and, " Few there be that find 
it." Do not these words teach that which is a 
fact of our observation and experience? Take 
life on the physical side. How many are living 
that narrow way which may be really called life? 
Ask the doctors how many are living rationally, 
hygienically? Ask them how many are over-eat- 
ing, how many under-eating? How many over- 
working, how many under-working? Is it not 
true here that very few enter at the straight gate, 
and walk the narrow way? Turn from this to 
the moral and intellectual life. How many here 
maintain their balance, keep the road of truth? 
Are men using their brains as they ought? Is not 
the complaint against the people to-day, as it was 
in Isaiah's time, "My people do not think"? 
Are most people even attempting to become fa- 
miliar with the great thoughts of the great think- 
ers of all time? If you think so, behold "the 
people " as they go to business to-morrow by tram 
and by train, and what are they reading; the best 
books of all ages? They are reading a one cent 
newspaper. But see them at night, at leisure in 
their homes! What now are they reading? 



3 20 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

That same one cent newspaper. But comes the 
Sabbath, the day of rest, and of spiritual refresh- 
ment. Now behold them! They will now be 
reading their best literature. What is it? That 
same newspaper, but to-day increased in size and 
clothed in calico gaudiness in recognition of the 
Sabbath. 

And when it comes to the narrow way of char- 
acter and conduct, the best we can say is what the 
old Quaker said to his wife, " Wife, it seems to 
me that every one but me and thee are unbal- 
anced, and sometimes methinks that thee art a 
little queer." In short, how few there be that 
find the narrow way, which combines strictness 
with liberality, gentleness with firmness, generos- 
ity with thrift, industry with moderation, tem- 
perance with tolerance. 

The Master, then, in these phrases states what 
is a fact, but it is well for us to mention a modi- 
fication of the fact. These phrases " few " and 
" many " must not be extended too far nor be- 
yond the subjects which they modify. 

The Master is certainly not here forestalling 
the Day of Judgment, nor is he affording us a 
norm by which we are to tell the final destiny of 
ourselves nor our fellows. The terms " life " and 
" destruction " are both of the relative. Take 
them in their broad sense and do they not ac- 






LIFE'S GOLDEN INVITATION 321 

cord with the common facts of our common ex- 
perience? Do they not tell us that many are 
marred, hampered and hindered by the want of 
balance in some phase of their lives, and that few 
are symmetrical and harmonious in their lives, 
and that all stand in need of these finger-posts of 
principle which he is here erecting, to guide all 
into the narrow way of life? And do they tell 
us anything more? I believe not. These 
phrases, above referred to, also intimate a rea- 
son for the fact. It is so easy to go wrong and 
it is so hard to go right. Human nature feels the 
temptation to move along the line of the least 
resistance. It is easy to drift with the current, 
it is hard to row against it. The Master here 
says the easy is the wrong way, the perilous way. 
Another reason for the fact is, this is the way 
the crowd goes, and because a man moves along 
the line of the least resistance, a man goes with 
the crowd. Is this not true? That the easy 
way, the broad way is the way of the crowd? 
How many followed and became patrons of this 
narrow way of Christ during his life on earth? 
We cannot give figures but we can certainly say, 
not many. 

How many are there to-day allied with our 
churches compared with those not identified with 
our churches? How many even within our 



322 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

churches are going this narrow way? How many 
are practicing, or attempting to practice, the re- 
ligion of Christ as here exhibited? Not the way, 
mark you, approved by the fathers, the counsels 
and the courts of the church; but the way re- 
vealed, approved and here outlined by the Mas- 
ter. So the statement of the Master is sadly 
true, " Many there be that enter in thereby " and 
" Few there be that find it." 

Because of the principle, because of the fact, 
because of the temptation, the Master utters the 
urgent invitation, " Enter ye in by the narrow 
gate." This invitation has all along been im- 
plied but now it is formally stated; stated to those 
disciples who heard those words so long ago, of- 
fered through them to those disciples to whom 
this plan of the life worth living might through 
all time come. There is an urgency in this invi- 
tation, a pathetic urgency, resting in the God- 
given ability of the man to choose. Christ is 
not mocking his people, he is not asking us to 
do the impossible. You can choose, you must 
choose! Not to choose the narrow way is to 
choose the broad way. There are in reality only 
two ways, however so many more there may seem 
to be. This invitation is urgent because of the 
blessed end of it. This way alone leads to real 
life, all others lead away from true and right 



LIFE'S GOLDEN INVITATION 323 

living. 

Thus doth the Master here appeal to the com- 
plete gamut of the motives of his hearers. He 
appeals to the noble in man, to the motives of 
aspiration, hope, courage and a true ambition. 
He appeals to the base motives, of apprehension, 
fear and self-preservation. One question forces 
itself upon our minds. Why is so good an in- 
vitation given in so forbidding a form? The an- 
swer is forthcoming; because of the honesty of 
the Master. He must state the facts and these 
are the facts. How differently framed are the 
invitations of men. The very morning I was 
writing the above lines there came into my hand 
an invitation to invest in some mining stock, with 
the glowing promise that the stock was sure to give 
a return of from six hundred to a thousand per 
cent, on the investment. I fear this offer be- 
cause it promises too much. Jesus would have 
us know the worst at the beginning. " If it were 
not so I would have told you." 

Fairness causes him to couch his invitation 
in this form. He endorses the opinions of 
men that this way is not easy. It is hard to live 
truly. He would make us alive to this fact and 
aware of the real difficulties of right living. We 
can also sense in this invitation the prudence of 
a man who knew men. The very difficulties of 



3 2 4 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

the problem before us, of the question to be de- 
cided, at once make us to realize our need of the 
divine help, and so it leads logically up to the 
thought of the last section of this grand discourse, 
wherein the divine Helper, even the Son of Man 
and the Son of God, is set before us, as the one 
who has come into this world to help us to find 
and to keep the narrow way of the perfect life. 



CHAPTER XX 

life's needed word of warning and wisdom 

Matt, vii, 15-20 

JESUS is fully aware that his last utterances, 
concerning life as a narrow way and to be en- 
tered by a gate that is straight, is a teaching that 
is unpalatable and hard for his hearers to receive. 

He who knew men knew that this counsel 
which he had just given ran counter to human 
desire and impulse; he knew that it interfered 
with the easy peace of mind which the flesh loves 
so well; he understood that it contradicted the 
laissez faire doctrine of life, so acceptable to the 
thoughtless and the indifferent; he knew that it 
conflicted with the common practices of men. 

And knowing these things, he further knew 
that in his day and in the days to come, as in the 
former days, in the times of Jeremiah and 
Isaiah, there would be those who would have 
" itching ears," those who would weary of this 
hard counsel, those who would say to their re- 
ligious leaders and teachers, to their prophets, 
11 Prophesy not unto us right things : speak unto 
us smooth things, prophesy deceits." 
325 



326 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

He who knew men knew that there would be 
those among the so-called prophets who would 
respond to this demand. Those who would no 
longer speak that truth hard to tell, unwelcome to 
hear, but those who would respond to this de- 
sire of the people, who would answer to this call, 
and who would teach of an easy life, and a 
smooth path into the kingdom of heaven. 

The Master would save his children, the 
Teacher would save his disciples, from the folly 
and fatality of following such leaders. There- 
fore, in his present lesson he warns them of the 
false prophets that shall arise; he places within 
their keeping a test by which they may know the 
false prophet, and by which the sincere, honest, 
earnest seeker after truth and life may likewise 
know the true prophet. But, further, by furnish- 
ing them with this test he has put within their 
means the measure by which they may know him; 
the philosopher's stone, which while it makes 
known the base metal shall also show him to be 
the safe and true prophet to follow. 

In this passage our Lord plainly, clearly recog- 
nizes what is a fact, namely, that the prophet has 
a place and part in society. That there is a need 
for the office of the prophet is most clearly shown 
by the prevalence of the prophet. At no time in 
the history of the world of which we may know 



LIFE'S WORD OF WARNING 327 

anything was there ever a period when the 
prophet is not present. He is found among the 
Chinese and the Indians of the East, among the 
Babylonians and the Assyrians, among the 
Egyptians and the Greeks and the Romans, among 
the most civilized and enlightened nations of an- 
tiquity. He is likewise found among those peo- 
ples that give the least evidence of advancement 
and culture. Among the Patagonians and the 
American Indians, the Sandwich Islanders and the 
most primitive peoples, the office of prophet is 
present and is honored. And always where he 
is present he has had a following. The reason 
for this is not far to seek. Men are by nature 
differently gifted and variously talented. Some 
have the gift of healing, some of organizing, some 
are by nature leaders of their fellows; some have 
skill of hand, some greater power of observation 
or invention, and some are gifted as the seer. 
The prophet is not merely, nor even principally, 
the man who foresees and predicts events which 
are to come to pass; but he is the man who lives 
near to the heart of facts; the man who inhabits 
the upper air and catches broad visions of princi- 
ples, the man who is in tune with the Infinite; in 
short, the prophet is the mouthpiece of the Al- 
mighty, the man who speaks for God and con- 
cerning the things divine. 



328 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

To-day, as much as in the former years, there 
is among the people the desire and the demand 
for the one who will speak and teach concerning 
the things of God. There is the yearning for a 
leader; the man who will speak with authority. 
Society is interrelated and interdependent and so 
arises the need for authorities who can teach us 
wisdom, in the various affairs of life. Hence the 
office of the prophet ever has and ever will have 
a place among mankind. In these words then, 
the Master not only recognizes the rightful place 
of the prophet, but he tells us what is a sad and 
depressing fact, namely, that even those who 
speak for God, and about the things divine, those 
who teach in the name of the Lord, do not all 
of them speak truly, neither can they all be im- 
plicitly trusted, nor safely followed. He here 
refers to a class whom he elsewhere denominates 
as " blind leaders of the blind." 

There are, and there ever will be in the world, 
false-prophets; some through ignorance, those 
who think they have a call from God to speak, 
but whose teaching is foolishness; some through 
false motives, it may be prompted by the desire 
to support a cause or an institution, they affirm 
as the truth of God what is only the invention of 
man; some through lack of independence or 
through desire to comply with the popular clamor 



LIFE'S WORD OF WARNING 329 

or to contract the popular applause; some through 
bad motives, for the gain of power, or the ac- 
cumulation of gold, or the credit of piety; yes, 
there are even. those who will play the hypocrite 
to be counted " holy " of their fellows. But there 
are also true prophets, and it is that his followers 
may be able to tell the true as well as to discern 
the false that the Master here offers the true 
test of a prophet. 

In speaking of the proof of a prophet, our 
Lord says that we cannot always tell the true 
prophet from the false, by the appearance. He 
may be clad in the characteristic sheep's coat of 
the prophets of old, he may be garbed in the long- 
tailed coat and the white tie of the modern day, 
he may have the most fashionable and most ap- 
proved dress of any period, but this does not mark 
him as a true prophet. Nor can we tell the false 
prophet by his facial appearance; he may have 
the face of a saint, the " alabaster brow and the 
sad sweet smile " which accredits a prophet with 
so many to-day. He may use the honeyed words 
and the " cant " phrases which the pietistic ap- 
prove and the unthinking accept as a mark of 
his prophetic gift. Jeremiah complains of the 
false prophets of his day, because they decorated 
and interlarded their pious, false utterances with 
the cant phrase then in vogue, " The burden of 



330 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

the Lord." He may make a claim to extreme 
holiness; the false prophet usually does, and his 
possession of that gift is usually in inverse ratio 
to his boast of it. The man who has really at- 
tained this state, if any man ever attains it, is 
never aware of it. How many and how easily 
are persons carried away, and deceived by these 
very appearances which the Lord here tells us are 
no marks of a true prophet ! 

Then he names the test of the prophet, the 
supreme, the perfect, test, " By their fruits ye shall 
know them." It takes time to apply this test, but 
it is the only safe and reliable proof of a prophet. 
How much the Master thinks of it, is shown by 
his elaboration of it. He is almost tautological 
in his expressions concerning this test. He tells 
his hearers in the sixteenth and seventeenth verses 
that this law is a law of nature — true for trees 
and true for men — true for everything which has 
life. The outer manifestation must correspond 
to the inner life; if the life is good, the fruit must 
be good; if the life is bad, the fruit cannot be 
other than bad. 

This law is unalterable and cannot be changed. 
There is no appeal from this test, it is final; it is 
the Lord's own test of priest and people. Here 
he applies it to the prophets, to the leaders of the 
people in things spiritual; in the following pas- 



LIFE'S WORD OF WARNING 331 

sage he applies it to the people themselves. Ob- 
serve, it is final and unequivocal; there is not one 
law for the preacher and one for the people; 
they are all to be judged by the same law, both 
preacher and people. 

But, asks some one, " Who is to apply this 
test?" The answer is, the individual; each for 
himself. Is it not written and " Ye shall know 
them"? Reason and judgment and the God- 
given faculties of man are to be used by the man 
himself. 

" To know " is an intellectual process and an 
intellectual end which each must exercise and at- 
tain for himself. This is not a function which 
may be delegated to counsel, or to authority, or 
to church or to any other man or body of men; 
it is a responsibility that attaches to the individual 
and that each must exercise for himself. It is 
true that there may be helps and guides in ap- 
plying this test, as the opinions, endorsements, ap- 
provals, estimates, experiences of others, but 
ultimately the authority to decide rests and must 
ever rest with the man himself. The right of 
private judgment obtains in the sphere of reli- 
gion, and the obligation of tolerance and charity 
is a corollary of this principle. One may fairly 
ask, What is the practical result of this searching 
test? And the answer must be given that it is 



332 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

twofold, working not only the condemnation of 
some, but the approval of many more of the 
prophets. 

Right here it seems to me that the power con- 
ferred by the gift of the test has been abused 
or misapplied. The customary use of this test 
has been for the condemnation and rejection of 
all those prophets and their followers who may 
not agree with me in doctrine and belief. View 
the commentators on this passage and see if it is 
not so. Pharisees and Sadducees, Pelagians and 
Socinians, Armenians and Presbyterians, Con- 
fucians and Mohammedans, seriatim, according to 
the creed of the person using the test, have been 
found fruitless and condemned. This surely is 
a misuse of the test, for two reasons. It was not 
given for our pride and puffing up, but for our 
enlightenment and to lead to the true prophet. 
This test, " By their fruits ye shall know them," 
approves many of the prophets whom many are 
prone to condemn. Take the great prophets of 
history: Gautama, Zoroaster, Confucius and Mo- 
hammed. Are they to be classed with the false 
prophets? Surely they have borne fruit, good 
fruit, abiding fruit, fruit which has fed and nour- 
ished millions of men for centuries, and fruit that 
must be acceptable to the Master. Fruits of pure, 
charitable, unselfish, self-sacrificing, God-seeking 



LIFE'S WORD OF WARNING 333 

and God-serving lives. 

Above all, this test leads us into the pres- 
ence and unto the feet of the Prince of the 
Prophets. Again let us ask, Why were we given 
this warning and why this test? Surely it was 
not for the futile task of finding false prophets 
alone. This would be a vain labor. But for the 
practical and necessary end of finding the true 
Prophet of our lives. Not for the hopeless and 
useless object of destructive criticism, as so many 
interpreters seem to think, but for the vital and 
useful end of discovering the real leader of our 
lives. It is not necessary for a man to know all 
the ways of evil before he can know the way of 
good. 

It is not necessary for a man to count every 
other way as utterly worthless because he knows 
the best way. It is not necessary to mark all the 
false prophets who have lived and taught if we 
can find the true prophet. Therefore the best 
use that can be made of this searching test is to 
apply it to that one who above all others claims 
to be the Prophet of Truth. In other words, 
there is one prophet whose fruits approve and 
accredit him — the true Prophet is Christ. He 
has here given us the scales in which he invites 
his disciples to weigh him; he has here given us 
the norm by which he asks us to judge him; he 



334 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

has here given us the test by which he asks us 
to prove him. 

If, then, one ask me, and it must ever be a per- 
sonal question, a subject of personal testimony, 
a matter which each must ultimately settle for 
himself; if one ask me why I believe Jesus Christ 
to be the Prince of the Prophets, I answer: I 
believe him to be such, to-day, not because my 
father has so told me, not because the church has 
approved him, not because councils have endorsed 
him, not because theology has logically estab- 
lished him — though all these authorities have 
their weight and their weight is great, but because 
he, above all others, satisfies that test which him- 
self has established, and because my mind, my 
heart and my spirit know him to be the prophet 
preeminent and the Lord of my life. 

By the fruit in his own life I know him to be 
the true prophet. He affords me the truest idea 
of man that I have ever known. He is the best 
expression of personality that I have found in this 
world. This surely was the thought of Paul, 
when he said, " Till we all come . . . unto a per- 
fect man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
fullness of Christ" (Eph. iv, 13). 

Of manhood, a man himself is capable of judg- 
ing; he has within himself the power of knowing 
manhood; he has the faculties for tasting and 



LIFE'S WORD OF WARNING 335 

testing manhood, and who beholds and thinks 
upon the Christ, sees the perfect man. Now this 
manhood expresses itself in his words and teach- 
ings. In these words I find a counsel above that 
of man, a guide which my soul approves. In his 
words I find a warning which my inner sense says 
is true. In his words I find a comfort, such as 
I can find nowhere else, a comfort which reaches 
my deepest sorrow, strengthens my greatest weak- 
ness, kindles my faintest hopes, lightens my dark- 
est paths. 

The practical test of light is its illuminating 
power; Christ's words are light. The practical 
test of food is its nourishing power; Christ's 
words satisfy my soul hunger. The practical test 
of water is its refreshing power; Christ's words 
are to me a mountain spring. Therefore he is 
my Prophet. 

This manhood expresses itself in the works he 
did while he was on the earth. I look at the rec- 
ord of the life he lived here and I find that life 
was in him, because life issued from him. " In 
him was life, and the life was the light of men." 
This is his own test and proof of himself, we 
might almost say to himself. At the opening of 
his ministry he read these words before the peo- 
ple of his home town of Nazareth : " The Spirit 
of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me 



336 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

to preach good tidings to the poor; he hath sent 
me to proclaim release to the captives, and re- 
covering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty 
them that are bruised, to proclaim the acceptable 
year of the Lord." Who does these things, who- 
ever he may be, is the heaven-accredited guide, 
and must be the guide of my life. And because 
he did them more and more excellently than any 
other, he above all is my Prophet. 

But this life expressed itself best in his char- 
acter. There is no attribute of a good character 
which is not found in him in its perfection. He 
had the stronger qualities of a great character, 
courage, honesty, fearlessness, independence, self- 
reliance and he had also the gentler qualities 
of true greatness of kindness, meekness, sym- 
pathy, patience, tolerance, forgiveness. And these 
qualities were combined in a service that never 
faltered, and in a sacrifice that stopped not even 
at the cross. 

Moreover, he is unique in this that his char- 
acter is stainless and his life without sin. " In 
vain we look through the entire biography of 
Jesus for a single stain or the slightest shadow 
on his moral character. There never lived a 
more harmless being on earth. He injured no- 
body, he took advantage of nobody. He never 
spoke an improper word, he never committed a 



LIFE'S WORD OF WARNING 337 

wrong action. He exhibited a uniform elevation 
above the objects, opinions, pleasures and pas- 
sions of this world and disregard to riches, dis- 
plays, fame and favor of men. . . . No vice that 
has a name can be thought of in connection with 
Jesus Christ. Ingenious malignity looks in vain 
for the faintest trace of self-seeking in his mo- 
tives; sensuality shrinks abashed from his celestial 
purity; falsehood can leave no stain on him who 
is incarnate truth; injustice is forgotten beside his 
errorless equity; the very possibility of avarice is 
swallowed up in his benignity and love; the very 
idea of ambition is lost in his divine wisdom and 
divine self-abnegation." * 

But, still more, that harmony and balance of 
character, that perfect adjustment and due pro- 
portion, which he himself has named as the true 
way of life, finds its best and truest exemplifica- 
tion in him. " Christ was free from all one- 
sidedness which constitutes the weakness as well 
as the strength of most eminent men." 2 " His 
character never lost its even balance and happy 
equilibrium, never needed modification or read- 
justment." " He combined the vivacity without 
the levity of the sanguine, the vigor without the 

1 " The Person of Christ," by Philip Schaff, D.D., Am. Tract 
Society, 1865, pp. 53-4. 

2 This and the following quotations from Schaff s " Person of 
Christ," noted above. 



338 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

violence of the choleric, the seriousness without 
the austerity of the melancholic, the calmness with- 
out the apathy of the phlegmatic temperament." 
He was preeminently sane and natural. " Ele- 
vated above the affairs of the world, yet he min- 
gled with society — played with little children, 
shed tears at the sepulcher, delighted in God's 
nature." " His zeal never degenerated into 
passion, nor his constancy into obstinacy, nor his 
benevolence into weakness, nor his tenderness into 
sentimentality." " He was the most effective and 
yet the least noisy, the most radical and yet the 
most conservative, calm and patient, of all re- 
formers." 

Such a balanced, harmonious, symmetrical, per- 
fect character must awake my approval and elicit 
my admiration, and this from the very fact of 
beholding it, as one who sees the rose must ac- 
knowledge it to be beautiful; who looks upon the 
sun must confess it to be light. 

Jesus affords me the truest idea of God that I 
have ever known. Rightly does the apostle John 
say, "No man hath seen God at any time; the 
only begotten Son ... he hath declared him " 
(or made him manifest). 

No man hath seen God in theologies. These 
may deal in representations of the Almighty, but 
they so analyze, define and exalt Him, as to re- 



LIFE'S WORD OF WARNING 339 

move Him out of my reach. No man hath seen 
God in metaphysic and philosophy; to speak of 
Him as the Infinite, the Absolute and the Eternal, 
is to enwrap Him in such clouds of heavenly glory 
that he is hidden from the feeble gaze of earth- 
born men. 

But Christ represents to me a God whom I can 
understand, a God who has come down to the 
level of man; a God who dwells among His peo- 
ple; a God who helps His people, not only in 
the great ongoings, but in their daily lives; a God 
who loves with a love that passeth knowledge; a 
God whom I can love, must love; a God who 
saves, and who is so anxious that His children 
should be in all things what He would have them, 
that Himself suffers for their sins, becomes poor 
that they may be rich, dies that they may live. 

In a word Christ represents God to be that 
which we all know and can sufficiently understand 
— a Father. This is preeminently Christ's con- 
tribution to our knowledge of God. He has 
brought back to the human family that knowledge 
which it had lost — the knowledge of our Father 
in Heaven. And therefore he is my Prophet of 
God. 

He affords the truest ideals of life. Others 
have spoken wisely but he the best of all. Oth- 
ers have given precepts but he has given princi- 



340 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

pies. Con over those principles which he has 
given in this discourse as the lines along which 
the life of man should be lived, and does not the 
heart and mind see them to be the true, the per- 
fect way of life? Here is life's philosophy; here 
is life's practical hand-book; where will you find 
one to surpass it? Where will you find one to 
compare with it? I know no other who so knew 
the heart of man; who so comprehended the re- 
quirements of life; who has spoken so aptly for 
every stage and state of our life. Therefore he 
is the Prophet of Life. 

But more than this, he is the Prince of the 
Prophets because of the fruits that have been 
borne by those who have hid their lives in him. 
He has endured the test of time. That test 
which causes the mountains to crumble, the na- 
tions to change, the kingdoms to vanish away, the 
teachings of to-day to become the vagaries of to- 
morrow; that test which has stamped as false so 
much that has been counted true; which has 
marked as evanescent so much that has been 
counted permanent; that test which the wise 
Gamaliel set for the disproving or proving of the 
Christ; that test Christ and his teachings have en- 
dured. The years have gone, the centuries have 
sped by, the Christ and his religion have been tried 
by criticism, by persecution, by opposition, by ap- 



LIFE'S WORD OF WARNING 341 

proval, by experience, by life, and to-day is it not 
true that he is the grandest figure that has crossed 
the stage of history? Is not this the testimony 
of mankind? Who to-day can be compared with 
the Christ? Who can be even placed in the same 
class with him? Philosophers, scientists, histori- 
ans, litterateurs, philanthropists, generals, states- 
men, all come to lay the laurels of their tribute, 
if not their worship, at his feet. Sages, philoso- 
phers and prophets, while they may teach some- 
thing of the spirit of his teaching, when they come 
into his presence it is not to instruct but to be in- 
structed; when they pass before him it is not to 
receive homage but to pay it. To-day his name 
is above every name that is named on earth. 

Moreover, to-day more than at any time in the 
history of the world, he is the most vital element, 
the most beneficent power that is in the society 
of men. From him have issued those healing 
streams that have cleansed the foul spots of earth. 
From him has radiated the light that has caused 
to grow the flowers and fruits of the beautiful, 
the blessed life; philanthropies, institutions, char- 
ities have sprung up in the wake of his blessed 
footsteps. His is the Love that has touched the 
heart of the beast and made him into a man; 
touched the heart of the savage and made him 
into a citizen; touched the heart of a man and 



342 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

made him into a god. 

Enter to-day into the homes where peace 
reigns, and the blessed life is found; ask who 
hath done this — will not the answer be the 
Christ? 

Enter the hospitals where the sick and afflicted 
lie on their beds of pain, and inquire who hath 
ministered to your distresses, and who hath healed 
your wounds — and will not the answer be the 
Christ? Go into the institutions for the blind 
and the deaf. Inquire who hath founded these 
— and will not the answer be the Christ? Go 
among the settlement workers in our cities, and 
ask them what hath led them there and what hath 
kept them there — and will not the answer be the 
Christ? Cross the seas, penetrate the forests of 
Africa, walk the streets of the cities of Asia, 
pierce to the snow-clad plains and mountains of 
Alaska, inquire of the missionaries there, for 
there is no spot of earth too barren, no habita- 
tion too forbidding for them to dwell in, what 
hath brought and kept them there — and will not 
the answer be the Christ? As the greatest power 
in the world to-day is personality, so the greatest 
personality in the world is the Christ. 

While I contemplate this human exponent of 
the divine, the prophet of Nazareth, I see the 
heavens opened, I hear the voice of God Himself, 



LIFE'S WORD OF WARNING 343 

saying, as He said so many, many years ago, 
" This is my beloved son, in whom I am well 
pleased, hear ye him." And I must reply, " O 
Christ! Thou art, and ever shalt be my Prophet, 
Priest and King." 



CHAPTER XXI 

LIFE'S RELATION TO THE CHRIST 

AND HIS RELIGION 

Matt, vii, 21-29 

THE discourse of the Teacher now draws to 
its close; he has made known to his disciples 
the constitution of the kingdom of God; he has re- 
vealed to them the life worth living, he has 
accredited and established himself as the Prince 
of the Prophets; it now remains to press home 
the importance of the Teacher and his teachings 
upon the disciples. This which we have been con- 
sidering and are now concluding is the Gospel of 
the Savior, this is the way of life our Master 
taught, this is the creed of the Christ, this is the 
religion of our Lord. 

The remainder of the Gospel record, that brief 
and beautiful story of miracle, parable and oc- 
casional saying, can almost all if not quite all of 
them be fitted into some one of the great life 
themes, here systematically expounded. His en- 
tire life is elaborative and illustrative of this dis- 
course. These are the texts upon which his life 
is the sermon. 

344 



LIFE'S RELATION TO CHRIST 345 

As we come to the study of the application of 
this sermon by the Teacher himself, let us take 
his own words for text; let us emerge from the 
clouds of controversy, let us free ourselves from 
the bondage of fixed opinion, let us approach this 
passage for the first time, let us for once ask, not 
what men have said about these words of our 
Lord, but what the words themselves say to us. 
Let us eliminate the centuries with their multi- 
tudes of minds and their myriads of interpreta- 
tions, colored now by this, now by that, motive, 
passion, controversy; let us for the moment sit 
with his disciples, on the side of the Mount, hear- 
ing this teaching of the Savior as the disciples 
heard it; let us look upon it in its early morning 
freshness, before the passing of man has shaken 
off the dew; then let us inquire, What does he 
here say to me? What does he here mean for 
me? 

One thing at this point clearly impresses itself 
upon our thought. The Master has come very 
close to his disciples, he has won their strictest 
attention, they are fully aware that he is now 
speaking of the importance of their right relation 
to him and to his teachings. This importance has 
been implied in every theme of which he has 
treated; this importance to them underlay the 
promise and warning, gave force to the command 



346 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

and admonition which he has uttered in their 
hearing. They could not but be aware that it 
was not a matter of indifference or even of idle 
preference, but a matter of transcendent impor- 
tance to their lives — these things of which he 
has been speaking. Has he not spoken to them 
of the way of life, the path of blessedness, the 
entrance into the kingdom of heaven — has he 
not all along implied that it was a matter of the 
supremest moment to their well-being that they 
should hear, and heed and lay to heart this 
heavenly teaching? Yea, they have sensed it 
from the beginning of his words, they have felt it 
increasingly as he advanced in his unfolding of 
the kingdom of heaven, but now they know the 
importance of these things that he has been say- 
ing to them, as they have not known them before. 
Christ in this part of his discourse assumes a 
new attitude toward his hearers. We can imag- 
ine a new light in his eye, a new tone in his voice, 
a new intensity in his manner, and a new earnest- 
ness of spirit. He is now speaking to them from 
a new standpoint, even that of authority — his own 
authority. We can find evidence of this fact in 
the passage which now engages our thought. 
Thrice he uses the expression " me," thrice the 
phrase " in my name," twice the word " mine." 
It is apparent also in that new position which 



LIFE'S RELATION TO CHRIST 347 

he assumes and to which he darkly yet distinctly 
alludes in the phrase " in that day." He has al- 
ready given a far-off hint of "that day"; when 
he was speaking of the progressive element of 
that Gospel he taught, then he said, " For verily 
I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one 
jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the 
law, till all be fulfilled." Now he makes a kin- 
dred but more distinct allusion to " that day " ; 
this is clearly, from the pictured relation of man- 
kind to him, the day of his rule, dominion, power, 
authority; that day when his words are the norm 
of a right life, and his teaching the measure of 
a man. And as he speaks to his hearers on the 
mountain side, he becomes transfigured in spirit; 
he sees that distant day as though it were pres- 
ent; he views that far-off consummation in the 
ever-present "now" of God's accomplishment; 
and this which he sees and feels, for the instant 
his hearers sense and know in his new spirit and 
authority toward them. How unmistakably is 
this revealed in the closing words of the report 
of this sermon, probably made by one who was 
present at that time, and who knew whereof he 
spoke, " The people were astonished at his doc- 
trine : for he taught them as one having authority 
in himself, and not as the scribes." Yes, the im- 
portance of these teachings and of this Teacher 



348 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

to mankind could not be overestimated. Their 
right relation to him means life. So it arises that 
the Master here tells his hearers what constitutes 
a right relation to him, and how it is established, 
in other words, in these closing lessons he is speak- 
ing to his disciples on what constitutes a true 

PROFESSION OF FAITH IN HIM. 

" Not every one that saith unto me Lord, Lord, 
shall enter into the kingdom of heaven." A for- 
mal profession of him is not enough. In these 
words, " Not every one," etc., if language has 
any meaning, the unqualified value of oral and 
formal profession of Christ is explicitly denied. 
There is ever and everywhere a tendency to ma- 
terialize religion, to tie spiritual things to material 
forms; to make some rite, some ceremonial ob- 
servance, some formula of words, the way of sal- 
vation, and against this temptation to carnalize 
and materialize religion, throughout this great dis- 
course, Jesus firmly sets his face, but nowhere 
more clearly, more strongly, more explicitly than 
in these closing words. This temptation is seen 
in the heathen religions — indeed, it is the es- 
sential evil of heathenism and the atheistic ab- 
surdity of idolatry; this tendency has its ample 
evidencing in the Jewish religion, where temple 
service and temple forms and priestly rule are 
made to take the place of righteousness. It is 



LIFE'S RELATION TO CHRIST 349 

against this heathenism in the Jewish religion that 
prophets prophesied and preachers preached. But 
alas! that this same temptation should have been 
yielded to in that most spiritual religion which 
the Christ founded, and yet such are the facts. 
Note, that after the death and departure of Jesus 
this same old tendency asserted itself, and men 
sought to make religion to consist of forms, cere- 
monies and the traditions of men. Even as the 
Children of Israel relapsed into the idolatries of 
Egypt when their leader Moses had been absent 
from them but a few days, so when Christ had 
entered into the heavens, it was not long before 
instinctive materialism began to assert itself. 
Men attempted to make the formalism of dogma 
take the place of the free spirit of the living 
Gospel. They taught that only those who as- 
sented to a belief in the Trinity, or in the im- 
maculate conception, or the foreordination of 
God, etc., etc., etc., could be saved. Then only 
those who assented to a set form of words, formu- 
lated by the church, could have hopes of salva- 
tion. Note the Athanasian creed, " This is God 
and man, God of the substance of the Father, 
begotten before the world, and man of the sub- 
stance of his mother born in the world. Perfect 
God and perfect man. Equal to the Father as 
touching his Godhead, and inferior to the Father 



I 



350 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

as touching his manhood, who although he be 
God and man, yet he is not two but one Christ. 
One not by the conversion of the Godhead into 
man, but by the taking of the manhood into God 
. . . this is the Catholic faith which except a man 
believe he cannot be saved." However excellent 
this may be as an attempt to define the undefin- 
able, and to comprehend the incomprehensible, it 
is certainly absurd and contradictory to make it 
a test of a Christian life. How many thousands 
have assented to this creed to whose minds and 
lives it had no intelligible meaning! Thus is sal- 
vation made to consist in the apprehension of a 
metaphysical proposition or in the assent to a 
purely philosophical tenet. 

Many a man has been cast out of the church 
and condemned to eternal damnation because all 
he knew and could assent to was, " I know 
I was blind and now I see." And even to- 
day we have those who pin a man's salvation to 
the fact of whether he has in the presence of the 
congregation said, "Lord — Lord!" 

But, says our Teacher, this is not a distinguish- 
ing mark of the religion of Christ. Not pro- 
fessing, nor confessing, nor praising, nor pretend- 
ing " with the mouth " will win a man into the 
kingdom of heaven, or will make a man a fol- 
lower of Christ. 



LIFE'S RELATION TO CHRIST 351 

Yet again we see that the qualified value of 
oral and formal profession is not denied, but the 
oral confession of Christ must be put on a new 
and a true basis. In other words, let us put it 
as plainly as did our Lord — oral profession of 
him is not a sine qua non to salvation. " He that 
doeth the will of my Father " shall enter into the 
kingdom of heaven, is our Lord's teaching. He 
that " doeth these words of mine " builds a house 
that shall abide. How more clearly could this 
truth be taught than it is in the parable of " Go 
work in my vineyard," recorded in Matthew the 
twenty-first chapter and the twenty-eighth through 
the thirty-second verses ? " Go work in my vine- 
yard " is the command given to the two men; " I 
go, sir," is the commendable and clear assent of 
the first; " I will not," is the equally distinct dis- 
sent of the second. But later the conduct of each 
contradicted the confession of each. " Which of 
these did the will of the Father? " Jesus makes 
the application of the parable himself, " Verily I 
say unto you, that the publicans and the harlots go 
into the kingdom of God before you," for ye con- 
fess and do not the will, while they confess not 
yet do. Which of these is that profession of 
Him he will approve ? Verily he teaches his dis- 
ciples in the Sermon on the Mount. We cannot 
pass this teaching without adverting to that pas- 



352 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

sage in Matthew's record, which those who would 
compel men to say, " Lord — Lord," conjure by. 
It runs, " Whosoever therefore shall confess me 
before men, him will I confess also before my 
Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall 
deny me before men, him will I also deny before 
my Father which is in heaven." As commonly 
interpreted this is made to mean just that which 
the Lord himself here expressly denies, a verbal, 
oral confession of his name, in public. Observe 
the inconsistency of the interpreters; "confess" 
is made to mean openly, orally and publicly " with 
the mouth" to acknowledge the name of Jesus; 
but " deny " is not taken in this sense but is made 
to mean, to refuse to acknowledge in heart, spirit 
and life. In other words, the denial is made with 
the life, while the confession is made with the 
lips. Let both confession and denial be made 
with the life, and we have, I believe, the spirit 
of our Lord's teaching in this present passage, in 
the parable of " Go work in my vineyard " and in 
common sense and reason. The religion of 
Jesus throughout is not a religion of form but a 
religion of fact; the confession of Jesus is not 
a confession in form but a confession in fact, and 
such a confession alone is acceptable to our Lord. 
Yet the value and necessity of an oral profes- 
sion of Christ has a true basis on which it rests 



LIFE'S RELATION TO CHRIST 353 

and on which it should be rightly put. The pub- 
lic confession of his name is not a magic formula 
by which a man is to be saved, but is the natural 
acknowledgment of a loving heart. A true man 
will want to acknowledge his name. A grateful 
heart will desire to express its gratitude to his 
Savior. It is the right and reasonable thing for 
a man to acknowledge that one by whom he is 
saved and in whom he lives. And as the pro- 
fession of his name should be made primarily for 
the sake of the Christ, because it is his due, so 
likewise sound wisdom shows that it is the best 
thing for a man to do for his own sake. Jesus 
in this discourse has shown the fatality and folly 
of double-mindedness, of a divided life; he has 
taught the wisdom and strength of singleness of 
purpose. To come out fairly and squarely and ac- 
knowledge that we are on the Lord's side strength- 
ens a man, gives him stability, hedges him with 
protection, helps him on his way. But still fur- 
ther, that man who believes in Christ, that man 
who would live the life Christ would have him 
live, who would be of service to his fellows and 
the kingdom, must publicly confess his Lord, for 
his fellows' sake, and for the sake of the king- 
dom, else refusing to do this little great thing 
let him cease to pray, " Thy kingdom come, thy 
will be done." Reasons enough can be adduced 



354 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

without resorting to superstition, why a man 
should publicly and formally acknowledge his 
Lord and Savior. 

Nor is a superstitious practice and a formal pre- 
tension living in right relation to Christ, as he 
teaches his disciples in the twenty-second verse of 
this chapter. Preaching and wonder-working in 
his name is not doing his will. Observe the three- 
fold repetition of the phrase " in thy name," giv- 
ing the impression of a cabalistic form. No par- 
tial, spiritless, formal, heathenish observance of 
the law will suffice. No literal, heartless keep- 
ing of Sabbath days, holy days, doing of pietistic 
works, is inculcated in his teachings. To say, " I 
used thy name four hundred times last Sunday, 
and repeated forty ' Pater Nosters ' while pass- 
ing the church," is not Christ's idea of living a 
holy life. To such he will say, " Depart from 
me," because ye are not of me nor in me, nor I 
truly in you. " Ye have the form of godliness but 
deny the power thereof." 

" Depart from me, ye that work iniquity," sig- 
nifies that the daily trend of the life is not in ac- 
cord with the superstitious religion of the moment. 
" Depart from me," ye that serve me with the 
little finger and yourselves with the whole hand. 
Ye that put your bodies into my service and your 
whole heart and soul into lawlessness. All life 



LIFE'S RELATIOxN TO CHRIST 355 

is to be holy and all living is to be sacred, and 
the leaven of the religion of Christ is to leaven 
the whole lump of life. 

As Jesus explicitly denies the unqualified value 
of a formal profession of him, so he expressly 
affirms the unqualified worth of a real and vital 
profession of him and of his religion. " He 
that doeth the will of my Father," " Every one 
that hea-reth and doeth these words of mine," are 
the form in which he teaches his disciples what 
constitutes a real profession. A vital relation to 
Christ alone suffices; the theme of the entire ser- 
mon is life, life on all its sides, in all its relations; 
the emphasis is ever laid on the heart and soul 
life; the constant call throughout the entire dis- 
course is action! — action!! action!!! In these 
words a warning is given to the people, as in the 
words of the last section a warning was given to 
the teachers. " By their fruits ye shall know 
them." Here he says by their fruits I shall know 
them. The fruit is the test of Christ's own life 
— this is to be the test of the lives of those who 
profess him. This is the import of the parable 
of The Branch and the Vine. Anything short of 
walking this way is insufficient; " saying" is con- 
trasted with " doing " ; " hearing " is contrasted 
with "doing"; and only those who do shall be 
approved. The doer of his will is he that pro- 



356 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

fesses his name. 

The religion of Christ consists in doing the will 
of, having the spirit of, walking the way of, 
Christ in all our lives. " What must I do to be 
saved? " asks man of man, and man answers as- 
sent to the Athanasian or to some other creed. 
" What must I do to be saved? " asks a man of 
the Christ and he answers to the lawyer, and to 
the rich young ruler, and to his disciples here, 
" Hear and do these words of mine." In other 
words, true belief in Christ is not belief alone in 
the historical Christ but belief in the spiritual 
Christ. It is not to believe that one called Jesus 
lived in Palestine two thousand years ago, and 
there taught a Gospel of gladness, and worked 
miracles of healing, afterwards dying a violent 
death on the cross. It is not enough to have 
known Christ after the flesh even; in this sense 
the rulers of the temple, the scribes and the Phari- 
sees knew him better than we can ever know him, 
and yet they received his denunciation and woe 
because they " did not know him." 

To believe Christ is to believe in his way of 
life, with the belief of a life doing his way. 
He believes in food who eats it; he believes in 
water who drinks it; he believes in knowledge who 
follows it; he believes in Christ who lives him. 
Plainly can we see that this Christ life manifests 



LIFE'S RELATION TO CHRIST 357 

itself in a thousand forms and peoples and na- 
tions, who have never known our creed and who 
have never followed our forms. In other words, 
" in every nation he that feareth him and work- 
eth righteousness is accepted with him," and the 
religion of Christ is far broader than many to-day 
would admit. 

The Master concludes this remarkable dis- 
course to his disciples with the use of the figure 
of the two builders and the two buildings. In 
this he reveals to his hearers that the right rela- 
tion to Christ and his teachings assures that one 
who has it of a true and abiding life. Again the 
Teacher directs his hearers' attention to the im- 
portance of these teachings to their lives, " These 
words of mine," these words to which you have 
just listened, are the standard of right living, 
these point the way to the way of blessedness, to 
the formation of that character which shall abide. 
But hearing these words is not enough, the con- 
dition of right living is " hearing and doing " 
them. He teaches at this point what he taught 
his disciples at a later time, " If ye know these 
things happy are ye if ye do them." And then 
he concludes with a brief reference to the result 
of living after this manner, and a brief allusion 
to the result of forsaking the principles here 
taught. The distributive phrases " every one," 



358 THE LIFE WORTH LIVING 

" not every one " and " liken unto a man," show 
us that this opportunity and this obligation is per- 
sonal and individual. There is no shirking of 
this responsibility, there is no warrant for com- 
missioning church or saint to do for me that which 
I only can do for myself. That man who will 
hear these words, who will heed them, who will 
follow them is a " wise man," a man who chooses 
the better way, and a man who builds to abide. 
Moreover, a man who takes this for his pattern, 
these for his principles of life, is a man whose life 
is safe and who shall endure. His life is rightly 
founded on a permanent, unchanging base. He 
rests upon a rock, even the rock Christ Jesus. He 
is that man who goes to the foundation of things, 
that man, to use Luke's phrase, " who digged and 
went deep." This is the man who builds upon 
that foundation to which Paul refers when he 
says, " Other foundation can no man lay than that 
is laid, which is Jesus Christ." 1 The life of this 
builder, the house in which he dwells, like all 
earthly things, must be subjected to the test of 
time, and tried by the storms of existence. This 
is the lot of every life, this is the fate of every 
man — his building shall be tried on every side 
— the rain shall test it from above, the wind from 
about, the floods from beneath — but it shall not 

1 1 Cor. iii, n. 



LIFE'S RELATION TO CHRIST 359 

fall, and the life that is built on this foundation, 
and has these principles of the Master Workman 
built into it, shall abide forever. 

The sermon is ended; the curriculum for the 
training of the disciples is finished; the best ma- 
terial for the construction of a home is furnished. 

I am sure that he who hears and heeds these 
great principles of the religion of Christ, these 
golden rules of the Life Worth Living, knows 
the true philosophy of right living, and stands at 
the center of the unchanging theology. Here are 
the materials for every builder of a home — the 
foundation Rock; the beams and stringers of 
sound principle — the embellishment and adorn- 
ment of heavenly precept. 

Rise then ! O Christian workman, appropriate 
that which God hath given, build the house Beau- 
tiful, the habitation Blessed, and the Home which 
is eternal. 



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